HV 

4711 

IT73 


■              :      J. 

A o 

^1  .^^i^    zZ 

A^g 

^B  JC^^PiMff 

■ir  ^^    ^^^ 

FHERN 
OO 

AX 

REGIO 

%iHi 

^^Rfl'(,^<- 

2 

^^^^■l^^K^:.  .:/x-, 

IBR 

Jk;>     ••^^'^ 

■L=a 

#  '  ^''     1 

§ — s 

m9          S 

v^  '      m 

M     n 

\u^  ^    iP 

a 

^'^■^ 

JX/#^ 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

m  1  4  793'/ 


W/\R28 


1935 


^   mo 


Form  L-9-15m-8,'26 


By  RALPH  WALDO  TRINE. 


"  Tlie  Life  BooksP 

I  know  of  nothing  in  the  entire  range  of 
literature  more  calculated  to  inspire  the  young 
than  the  "  Life  Books,"  and  to  renew  the  soul 
in  young  and  old  — Prom  a  Reader. 

WHAT  ALL  THE  WORLD'S  A-SEEKING. 

IN  TUNE  WITH  THE   INFINITE  ;    or,  Fulness  of 
Peace,  Power,  and  Plenty. 

The  "  Life  "  Booklets. 

THE  GREATEST  THING   EVER  KNOWN. 
EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE. 
CHARACTER-BUILDING  THOUGHT  POWER. 


THIS   MYSTICAL  LIFE  OF  CURS. 

Selectiors   for    every    week   in    tho   year    from 
Mr.  Trine's  most  popular  writings. 


THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL    &    CO., 
NEW  YORK 


}#^ 


Every  Living  Creature 

OR    HEART-TRAINING    THROUGH    THE 
ANIMAL   WORLD 

By 
RALPH  WALDO  TRINE 


The  tender  and  humane 
passion  in  the  human 
heart  is  too  precious  a 
quality  to  allow  it  to  be 
hardened  or  effaced  by 
practices  such  as  we  so 
often  indulge  in 


NEW     YORK 
THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


Copj'right,  iSgg 
By   Ralph    Waldo   Trine 


EIGHTEENTH   THOUSAND 


HV 
4711 

Tn3 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 


OR 


HEART-TRAINING  THROUGH  THE 
ANIMAL   WORLD 

TT  is  said  that  in  Japan  if  one  picks  up  a 
stone  to  throw  at  a  dog,  the  dog  will 
not  run,  as  you  will  find  he  will  in  almost 
every  case  here,  because  there  the  dog  has 
never  had  a  stone  thrown  at  him,  and  con- 
sequently he  does  not  know  what  it  means. 
This  spirit  of  gentleness,  kindliness,  and 
care  for  the  animal  world  is  a  character- 
istic of  the  Japanese  people.  It  in  turn 
manifests  itself  in  all  of  their  relations 
with  their  fellow  -  men ;  and  one  of  the 
results  is  that  the  amount  of  crime  com- 
mitted there  each  year  in  proportion  to  the 
population  is  but  a  very  small  fraction  of 
that  committed  in  the  United  States. 

In    India,    where  the    treatment    of    the 
animal  world  is  something  to  put  to  shame 

A 


2      EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

our  own'^country,  witfi  its  boasted  Chris- 
tian civilisation  and  power,  there,  with  a 
population  of  some  three  hundred  millions, 
there  is  but  one-fourth  the  amount  of  crime 
that  there  is  each  year  in  England,  with 
a  population  of  some  twenty  milUons,  and 
only  a  fraction  of  what  it  is  in  the  United 
States,  with  a  population  of  not  more  than 
one-fourth  the  population  of  India.  These 
are  most  significant  facts ;  they  are  mdeed 
facts  of  tremendous  import,  and  we  would 
do  wisely  to  estimate  them  at  their  proper 
value. 

We  cannot  begin  too  early  in  inculcating 
what  I  would  term  humane  sentiments  in 
the  mind  and  heart  of  every  individual. 
How  early  and  almost  unconsciously  the 
mother,  for  example,  gives  the  first  lessons 
of  thoughtlessness,  carelessness,  and  what 
will  eventually  result  in  cruelty  or  even  crime, 
to  her  child.  The  child  is  put  upon  the 
hobby-horse,  a  whip  is  put  into  his  little 
hand,  and  he  is  told  :  "  Now  whip  the  old 
horse  and  make  him  go."  With  this  initial 
lesson,  continued  in  various  ways,  we  find 
the  eager  desire  the  child  has  for  whipping, 
when  he  gets  the  whip  into  his  hands  in  a 
waggon  behind  a  real  horse.     Or  even  when 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE       3 

younger,  the  child  stumbles  over  a  chair, 
receives  a  knock,  and  bursts  into  crying. 
The  mother,  in  some  cases  merely  thought- 
less, in  others  caring  only  for  her  own 
comfort  and  ease,  in  order  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  child  away  from  the  little  hurt 
and  greater  rage  and  fright,  says :  "  Did  the 
mean  chair  hurt  mamma's  little  boy?  Go 
and  kick  the  old  chair — kick  it  hard."  The 
next  day  when  the  child  falls  over  or  bumps 
against  the  dog,  the  dog  in  turn  is  the  one 
to  receive  the  kick ;  and  still  later,  when 
anything  of  the  kind  occurs  in  connection 
with  a  little  playmate,  the  playmate  re- 
ceives the  same  treatment.  And,  so  far  as 
his  relations  with  his  fellow-men,  when  he 
is  grown  to  manhood,  are  concerned,  each 
one  can  trace  them  for  himself. 

We  have  sketched  the  thoughtless  or  the 
selfish  mother.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment 
at  the  other  type  of  mother,  the  one  who 
is  ever  thoughtful,  desirous  of  bringing  the 
best  influence  to  bear  upon  this  little  sensi- 
tive plate,  if  you  will  allow  the  expression, 
the  mother  who  understands  the  great,  almost 
omnipotent  forming-power  of  early  impres- 
sions. The  child  stumbles  over  or  falls  against 
the  chair.      The  mother,  after  smoothing  the 


4       EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

hurt  place  and  kissing  away  the  first  impulse 
to  anger  and  also  the  fright  of  the  child, 
and  thereby  its  tears,  says :  "  And  now  I 
wonder  if  mamma's  little  boy  has  hurt  the 
chair.  Go  bring  it  to  mamma  and  let  her 
smooth  away  its  hurt  also."  This  is  done, 
and  all  is  now  as  if  nothing  had  occurred. 
The  next  day,  then,  when  the  child  stumbles 
over  or  bumps  against  the  dog,  after  he  has 
had  his  own  hurt  soothed  by  his  mother, 
he  in  turn  toddles  off  to  soothe  and  comfort 
the  dog ;  and  again,  when  the  child  bumps 
against  his  little  play-fellow,  after  he  has 
been  soothed  and  kissed  and  thereby  com- 
forted by  his  mother,  he  feels  for  and 
sympathises  with  the  other  little  fellow,  and 
brings  him  up  to  receive  the  same  treatment. 
And  again,  each  one  can  for  himself  carry 
the  effects  of  this  type  of  suggestion  and 
training  into  the  child's  later  life  and  into 
his  relations  with  his  fellow-men.  Many 
instances  of  this  nature  in  the  every-day 
life  of  the  mother  and  child  might  be 
mentioned. 

And  to  go  back  even  farther — those 
mothers  who  are  beginning  to  understand 
the  powerful  moulding  influences  of  pre- 
natal conditions  will  realise  that  every  mental 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE      5 

and  emotional  state  lived  in  by  the  mother 
makes  its  influence  felt  in  the  life  of  the 
forming  child,  and  she  will  therefore  be 
careful  that  during  the  period  she  is  carrying 
the  child  no  thoughts  or  emotions  of  anger, 
or  hatred,  or  envy,  or  malice,  no  unkind 
thoughts  of  any  kind  be  entertained  by  her, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  thoughts  of  tenderness, 
kindness,  compassion,  and  love ;  these  then 
will  influence  and  lead  the  mind  of  the 
child  when  born,  and  will  in  turn  externalise 
their  effects  in  his  body,  instead  of  allowing 
to  be  externalised  the  poisoning  and  de- 
structive effects  of  their  opposiles. 

Heart-Training 

It  is  an  established  fact  that  the  training 
of  the  intellect  alone  is  not  sufficient. 
Nothing  in  this  world  can  be  truer  than 
that  the  education  of  the  head,  without 
the  training  of  the  heart,  simply  increases 
one's  power  for  evil,  while  the  education 
of  the  heart,  along  with  the  head,  increases 
one's  power  for  good,  and  this,  indeed,  is 
the  true  education. 

Clearly  we  must  begin  with  the  child. 
The  lessons  learned  in  childhood   are   the 


6      EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

last  to  be  forgotten.  The  potter  moulds 
the  clay  only  when  it  is  soft ;  in  a  little 
while,  when  it  begins  to  harden,  he  has  no 
more  power  over  it.  So  it  is  with  the  child. 
The  first  principles  of  conduct  instilled  into 
his  mind,  planted  within  his  heart,  take  root 
and  grow,  and  as  he  grows  from  childhood 
to  youth,  and  from  youth  to  manhood,  these 
principles  become  fixed.  They  exert  their 
influence.  Scarcely  any  power  in  existence 
can  change  them.  They  cling  to  him 
through  life.  They  decide  his  destiny. 
How  important,  then,  that  these  first  prin- 
ciples implanted  within  the  child's  heart 
be  lessons  of  gentleness,  kindness,  mercy, 
love,  and  humanity,  and  not  lessons  of 
hatred,  envy,  selfishness,  and  malice !  The 
former  make  ultimately  our  esteemed,  law- 
abiding,  law-loving  citizens ;  the  latter  law- 
breakers and  criminals.  Upon  the  training 
of  the  children  of  to-day  depends  the  con- 
dition of  our  country  a  generation  hence. 

In  crimes  against  the  person  the  passions 
play  the  most  important  part,  and  this  is 
true,  also,  even  in  many  crimes  against 
property.  How  important  it  is,  then,  that 
the  child  be  taught  to  govern  its  passions! 
How   impoiiant   that    it   be    taught    to    be 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE       7 

kind,  ^^f^rlle,  loving,  and  humane;  and  in 
all  the  range  of  human  thought  there  is 
not  a  better,  wiser,  or  more  expedient  way 
of  accomplishing  this  end  than  by  teaching 
kindness  towards  God's  lower  creatures.  If 
children  are  thus  taught  they  will  have 
instilled  into  their  hearts  those  principles 
of  action  which  will  make  them  kind  and 
merciful  not  only  to  the  lower  animals,  but 
also  toward  their  fellow-men  as  they  attain 
to  manhood.  Let  them  be  taught  that 
the  lower  animals  are  God's  creatures,  as 
they  themselves  are,  put  here  by  a  common 
Heavenly  Father,  each  for  its  own  special 
purpose,  atid  that  they  have  the  same  right  to 
life  and  protection.  Let  them  be  taught  that 
principle  recognised  by  all  noble  -  hearted 
men,  that  it  is  only  a  depraved,  debased, 
and  cowardly  nature  that  will  injure  an  in- 
ferior, defenceless  creature,  simply  because 
it  is  in  its  power  to  do  so,  and  that  there 
is  no  better,  no  grander  test  of  true  bravery 
and  nobility  of  character  than  one's  treat- 
ment of  the  lower  animals. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  benefits 
resulting  from  judicious,  humane  instruction. 
The  child  who  has  been  taught  nothing  of 
mercy,  nothing  of  humanity,  who  has  never 


8      EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

been  brought  to  realise  the  claims  that 
animals  have  upon  him  for  protection  and 
kindness,  will  grow  up  to  be  thoughtless  and 
cruel  toward  them,  and  if  he  is  cruel  to  them 
that  same  heart,  untouched  by  kindness  and 
mercy,  will  prompt  him  to  be  cruel  to  his 
family,  to  his  fellow  -  men.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  child  who  has  been  taught  to 
realise  the  claims  that  God's  lower  creatures 
have  upon  him,  whose  heart  has  been  touched 
by  lessons  of  kindness  and  mercy,  under  their 
sweet  influence  will  grow  to  be  a  large- 
hearted,  tender-hearted,  manly  man.  Then 
let  the  children  be  trained,  their  hands,  their 
intellects,  and  above  all  their  hearts.  Let 
them  be  taught  to  have  pity  for  the  animals 
that  are  at  our  mercy,  that  cannot  protect 
themselves,  that  cannot  explain  their  weak- 
ness, their  pain,  or  their  suffering,  and  soon 
this  will  bring  to  their  recognition  that  higher 
law,  the  moral  obligation  of  man  as  a  superior 
being  to  protect  and  care  for  the  weak  and 
defenceless.  Nor  will  it  stop  here,  for  this 
in  turn  will  lead  them  to  that  highest  law — 
man's  duty  to  man. 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE      9 

Hunting 

So  great  do  I  believe  are  the  influences 
of  the  inculcation  of  humane  sentiments 
early  in  the  life  of  every  individual  that 
I  shall  endeavour  to  make  as  concrete 
as  possible  the  suggestions  which  are  to 
follow ;  for  criminal  training  or  humane 
training  can  be  and  is  continually  given 
in  numbers  of  ways. 

As  a  parent,  in  the  first  place,  I  would 
teach  the  child  the  thoughtlessness,  the 
selfishness,  the  heartlessness,  the  cruelty 
of  hunting  for  sport.  I  would  put  into 
his  hands  no  air-guns  or  instruments  or 
weapons  by  which  he  could  inflict  torture 
upon  or  take  the  life  of  birds  or  other 
animals.  Instead  of  encouraging  him  in 
torturing  or  killing  the  birds,  I  would  point 
out  to  him  the  great  service  they  are  con- 
tinually doing  for  us  in  the  destruction 
of  various  worms  and  insects  and  small 
rodents  which,  if  left  to  themselves,  would 
so  multiply  as  literally  to  destroy  practic- 
ally all  fruit  and  plant  life.  I  would  have 
him  remember  how  many  lives  are  enriched 
and  beautified  by  their  song.  I  would  point 
out   to  him  their  habits  of  industry,  their 


lo     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

marvellous  powers  of  adaptation,  their  in- 
sight and  perseverance.  Therefore  I  would 
teach  him  to  love,  to  study,  to  care  for 
and  feed  them. 

Hunting  for  sport  indicates  one  of  two 
things  —  a  nature  of  such  thoughtlessness 
as  to  be  almost  inexcusable,  or  a  selfishness 
so  deplorable  as  to  be  unworthy  a  normal, 
sane  human  being.  No  truly  thoughtful 
manly  matt  or  truly  thoughtful  womanly 
woman  zvill  engage  in  it.  And  when  we 
read  of  this  or  that  woman,  be  she  well 
known  in  society,  or  the  wife  of  this  or 
that  well-known  man,  so  following  her 
selfish,  savage,  cruel  instincts,  or  her  de- 
sire for  notoriety  or  newspaper  comments, 
as  to  take  part  in  a  deer-hunt,  a  fox-chase, 
or  in  a  hunt  of  any  type,  we  have  an  index 
to  her  real  character  that  should  be  suffi- 
cient. 

But  a  few  days  ago  my  attention  was 
called  to  a  minister  in  one  of  the  New 
England  cities,  who  had  come  out  in  the 
papers  with  an  article  on  hunting  as  a  most 
excellent  pastime  and  recreation  for  the 
members  of  his  calling,  and  urged  them 
to  take  it  up,  as  he  already  had.  Think 
of  it,   what   it   means,  —  a    man   who   has 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     ii 

gotten  no  farther  into  the  real  spirit  of 
the  gentle  and  compassionate  teachings  of 
the  Christ  whom  he  professes  to  follow, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  humane  teachings  of 
the  gentle  Buddha,  whom  this  reverend 
gentleman  would,  by  the  way,  refer  to  in 
his  pulpit  and  his  prayer-meetings  as  the 
heathen  !  Shall  we  refrain  from  saying, 
inexcusable  thoughtlessness,  or  brutal,  de- 
plorable selfishness  ?  I  cannot  refrain  in 
this  connection  from  quoting  a  sentence 
or  two  from  Archdeacon  Farrar  which  have 
recently  come  to  my  notice : 

"Not  once  or  twice  only,  at  the  seaside, 
have  I  come  across  a  sad  and  disgraceful 
sight — a  sight  which  haunts  me  still — a 
number  of  harmless  sea-birds  lying  defaced 
and  dead  upon  the  sand,  their  white 
plumage  red  with  blood,  as  they  had  been 
tossed  there,  dead  or  half  -  dead,  their 
torture  and  massacre  having  furnished  a 
day's  amusement  to  heartless  and  sense- 
less men.  Amusement !  I  say  execrable 
amusement !  All  killing  for  mere  killing's 
sake  is  execrable  amusement.  Can  you 
imagine  the  stupid  callousness,  the  utter 
insensibility  to  mercy  and  beauty,  of  the 
man    who,    seeing    those    bright,    beautiful 


12     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

creatures  as  their  white,  immaculate  wings 
flash  in  the  sunshine  over  the  blue  waves, 
can  go  out  in  a  boat  with  his  boys 
to  teach  them  to  become  brutes  in  char- 
acter by  finding  amusement — I  say,  again, 
dis-humanising  amusement  —  by  wantonly 
murdering  these  fair  birds  of  God,  or 
cruelly  wounding  them,  and  letting  them 
fly  away  to  wait  and  die  in  lonely 
places  ?  " 

And  another  paragraph  which  was  sent 
me  by  a  kind  friend  to  our  fellow-creatures 
a  few  days  ago : 

"The  celebrated  Russian  novelist,  Tur- 
genieff,  tells  a  most  touching  incident  from 
his  own  life,  which  awakened  in  him 
sentiments  that  have  coloured  all  his 
writings  with  a  deep  and  tender  feeling. 

"  When  Turgenieff  was  a  boy  of  ten 
his  father  took  him  out  one  day  bird- 
shooting.  As  they  tramped  across  the 
brown  stubble,  a  golden  pheasant  rose 
with  a  low  whirr  from  the  ground  at  his 
feet,  and,  with  the  joy  of  a  sportsman 
throbbing  through  his  veins,  he  raised  his 
gun  and  fired,  wild  with  excitement  when 
the  creature  fell  fluttering  at  his  side. 
Life   was   ebbing   fast,    but   the  instinct    of 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     13 

the  mother  was  stronger  than  death  itself, 
and  with  a  feeble  flutter  of  her  wings  the 
mother  bird  reached  the  nest  where  her 
young  brood  were  huddled,  unconscious 
of  danger.  Then,  with  such  a  look  of 
pleading  and  reproach  that  his  heart 
stood  still  at  the  ruin  he  had  wrought, — 
and  never  to  his  dying  day  did  he  forget 
the  feeling  of  cruelty  and  guilt  that  came 
to  him  in  that  moment, — the  little  brown 
head  toppled  over,  and  only  the  dead 
body  of  the  mother  shielded  her  nestlings. 

"  '  Father,  father,'  he  cried,  '  what  have 
I  done  ? '  as  he  turned  his  horror-stricken 
face  to  his  father.  But  not  to  his  father's 
eye  had  this  little  tragedy  been  enacted, 
and  he  said :  '  Well  done,  my  son ;  that 
was  well  done  for  your  first  shot.  You 
will  soon  be  a  fine  sportsman.' 

"  *  Never,  father ;  never  again  shall  I 
destroy  any  living  creature.  If  that  is 
sport  I  will  have  none  of  it.  Life  is  more 
beautiful  to  me  than  death,  and  since  I 
cannot  give  life,  I  will  not  take  it.'" 

And  so,  instead  of  putting  into  the  hands 
of  the  child  a  gun  or  any  other  weapon 
that  may  be  instrumental  in  crippling, 
torturing,    or    taking    the    life    of   even   a 


14     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

single  animal,  I  would  give  him  the  field- 
glass  and  the  camera,  and  send  him  out 
to  be  a  friend  to  the  animals,  to  observe 
and  study  their  characteristics,  their  habits, 
to  learn  from  them  those  wonderful  lessons 
that  can  be  learned,  and  thus  have  his 
whole  nature  expand  in  admiration  and 
love  and  care  for  them,  and  become 
thereby  the  truly  manly  and  princely  type 
of  man,  rather  than  the  careless,  callous, 
brutal  type. 

Vivisection 

Another  practice  let  us  consider  that  is 
clearly  hardening  in  its  influence — a  prac- 
tice that  children  and  older  students  are 
here  and  there  called  upon  to  witness.  I 
refer  to  the  practice  commonly  known  as 
vivisection — the  cutting,  freezing,  burning, 
tearing,  torturing  of  live  animals  for  pur- 
poses of  scientific  "investigation."  After 
making  a  most  careful  study  of  this  matter 
and  its  claims,  getting  the  opinions  of 
many  of  the  ablest  physicians  and  surgeons 
in  the  world,  I  have  been  forced  to  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  practically  nothing  of 
any  real  value  has  come  to  us  through  this 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     15 

channel  that  could  not  and  would  not 
have  come  in  other  ways  without  this 
great  torture  and  sacrifice  of  Hfe,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  cruel  and  hardening  effects 
upon  those  who  resort  to  these  methods. 

Personally,  I  should  allow  no  child  of 
mine  to  attend  or  remain  at  any  school 
where  it  is  carried  on,  and,  moreover,  I 
should  raise  my  voice  and  exert  my  in- 
fluence against  it  at  every  opportunity.  I 
should  teach  the  child  the  great  fact  that 
we  are  so  rapidly  learning  to-day — namely, 
that  the  mind  is  the  natural  protector  of 
the  body,  and  that  there  are  being  con- 
tinually externalised  in  the  body,  effects 
and  conditions  most  akin  to  our  prevailing 
mental  states  and  emotions.  I  should 
teach  him  that  it  is  unwise  as  well  as 
cowardly  to  bring  diseased  conditions  into 
the  body  through  the  poisoning,  corroding 
effects  of  anger,  hatred,  jealousy,  malice, 
envy,  rage,  fear,  worry,,  lust,  intemperance, 
and  then  seek  to  find  an  aid  to  the  Remedy 
through  the  torture  of  even  a  single  dumb 
fellow-creature. 


i6     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

Docking 

In  the  next  place,  as  an  object-lesson, 
I  should  point  out  to  the  child  what  is 
indicated  at  the  sight  of  a  dock-tailed  horse. 
It  indicates  one  of  two  things — weakness 
of  individuality  and  hence  slavery  to 
custom,  or  that  all  too  -  prevalent  vain 
desire  through  parade  to  attract  attention, 
because  the  owner  of  the  animal  is  con- 
scious of  the  fact  that  there  is  not  enough 
in  himself  to  attract  it,  and  also  because  he 
is  utterly  devoid  of  those  finer  sensibilities 
of  the  heart  through  whose  promptings  one 
is  restrained  from  all  acts  of  cruelty  and 
torture,  from  all  acts  that  will  give  pain 
to  any  living  creature.  I  would  point  out 
to  the  child  the  torture  that  is  inflicted  upon 
the  animal  during  the  process  of  the  sawing 
and  the  burning  of  the  tail,  and  also  that 
this  acute  pain  and  torture  is  but  little 
compared  with  the  after-torture  that  is  to 
follow  during  the  balance  of  the  horse's 
life. 

The  skin  of  the  horse  is  exceedingly 
sensitive  to  the  bites  and  the  stings  of  the 
flies  and  other  pestiferous  insects  that 
harass  him  during  the  heated  term  of  the 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     17 

year,  and  which  without  this  natural  weapon 
of  defence  make  his  life  almost  unendur- 
able. I  would  point  out  to  the  child  how 
cruelly  the  animal  is  maimed  for  life,  and 
how  foolhardily  its  beauty  is  forever  de- 
stroyed. 

The  practice  has  already  by  statute  been 
made  a  crime  in  a  number  of  States, 
punishable  by  both  fine  and  imprisonment, 
but  still  the  idiotic,  cruel,  and  deplorable 
practice  goes  on  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent; and  not  until  public  sentiment  is 
thoroughly  aroused  against  it  will  it 
entirely  cease.  If  the  one  who  has  it 
done  were  compelled  to  stand  for  but 
half  a  day  in  the  hot  summer  weather, 
with  his  back  bare  to  the  bites  and  the 
stings  of  the  flies  and  sweat-bees  and  other 
insects  that  would  drive  him  almost  frantic, 
if  his  hands  were  so  fastened  that  he  could 
not  drive  them  away,  then  he  might  be 
brought  partially  at  least  to  his  senses. 

And  when  the  fine  sensitive  horse  whose 
tail  had  been  sawn  off  in  this  way,  so  that 
he  was  one  day  driven  almost  to  madness  by 
the  stings  and  bites  he  was  powerless  to  pro- 
tect himself  from,  especially  as  he  was  farther 
maddened  by  that  fiendish  device  of  torture, 

B 


1 8     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

the  high  check-rein,  finally  became  unman- 
ageable and  dashed  down  the  road  a  run- 
away, hurling  his  owner  to  death  and  his  wife 
to  the  bed  of  an  invalid  and  cripple — it  may 
seem  unkind  to  say  it — but  it  certainly  served 
them  right.  They  reaped  only  what  they 
themselves  had  sown,  as  every  one  must  in 
some  form  or  another,  for  such  is  the  law  of 
the  universe. 


Cattle  Transport 

And  again,  as  an  object-lesson,  I  would 
point  out  to  the  child  the  men  who  each  year 
engage  in  cattle-starving  on  our  Western 
plains ;  for  on  the  various  ranches  thousands 
of  head  of  cattle  in  cold  winters  starve  and 
freeze  to  death,  because  left  to  themselves 
when  they  can  no  longer  find  sufficient  food 
on  the  ranch,  this  plan  being  adopted  by 
many  cattle-raisers  because  it  is  cheaper  for 
them  to  lose  a  certain  portion  of  the  herd 
each  winter  than  it  is  to  furnish  them  suit- 
able food  and  shelter.  Thousands  of  cattle 
have  so  perished  during  the  past  winter.  I 
would  show  that  such  a  man  is  a  criminal 
and  deserves  restraint  as  such,  no  less  than 
a  man  who  would  cause  a  part  of  his  stock 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     19 

to    starve    to   death   in   a   stable    or    on   a 
farm, 

I  would  teach  the  child  the  same  in  regard 
to  those  responsible  for  the  careless,  cruel, 
mercenary  methods  of  transporting  cattle, 
sheep,  and  horses  from  the  West  to  the  East, 
or  to  England  and  other  countries,  in  the 
cattle  ships,  where  sometimes  as  many  as  a 
quarter  or  even  a  third  of  the  animals  are 
found  dead  on  their  arrival,  and  r  umbers  of 
others  so  mangled  and  crippled  that  they  have 
to  be  killed  as  soon  as  they  are  taken  from 
the  vessel. 


Dress  and  Fashion 

There  is  another  excellent  opportunity  for 
humane  teaching,  and  one  that  comes  especi- 
ally near  to  every  woman.  It  lies  in  the 
thoughtless,  cruel,  and  inexcusable  practice 
of  wearing  the  skins  and  plumage  of  birds  for 
millinery  and  other  decorative  purposes.  The 
enormous  proportions  of  this  traffic  are  simply 
appalling.  In  the  course  of  a  single  day  last 
year  in  London,  and  from  a  single  auction 
store,  the  skins  of  six  hundred  thousand 
birds  were  sold.     This  number  represented 


20     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

the  sales  of  but  one  store  of  one  city  on  a 
single  day. 

Millions  of  birds  are  destroyed  annually  to 
supply  the  demands  that  fashion  venders,  who 
become  wealthy  thereby,  have  created  in  the 
minds  of  women  for  this  purpose.  Whole 
species  of  birds  have  already  become  prac- 
tically extinct  by  this  wholesale  slaughter, 
while  others  are  rapidly  becoming  so.  For 
example,  that  beautiful  bird  the  white  heron, 
commonly  known  as  the  egret, — in  Florida 
but  one  can  now  be  seen  here  and  there  by 
the  tourist  where  thousands  could  be  seen 
but  a  few  years  ago.  This  bird  is  killed  and 
its  plumage  taken  only  at  that  season  of  the 
year  when  its  dress  becomes  a  little  more 
brilliant  than  usual,  for  it  is  its  nesting  time, 
and  Nature  seems  to  be  recognising  this,  the 
marriage  season,  by  preparing  for  it  its  wed- 
ding garments. 

The  birds  at  this  season  are  apparently 
very  innocent  of  harm  and  very  tame,  and 
are  found  near  together  taking  care  of  their 
young.  At  times  hundreds  of  birds  are  to 
be  found  near  together  in  one  roost  among 
the  tall  trees  of  the  swamp-lands,  so  that  the 
bird-catcher  finds  it  an  easy  task  to  conceal 
himself  and  pick  them  off  as  they  are  return- 


EVERY  LIVING   CREATURE     21 

ing  to  their  nests  with  food  for  their  young, 
— sometimes  to  the  extent  of  several  hundred 
in  a  single  day ;  and  every  bird  killed  at  this 
season  means  the  starving  to  death,  on  the 
average,  of  four  or  five  of  its  young.  It  be- 
hoves every  woman,  then,  who  wears  even  a 
single  egret  plume,  to  remember  that  she  has 
been  the  cause  of  the  sacrifice  of  at  least  four 
or  five  birds. 

"But,"  says  the  gentle  lady,  "I  had  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  killing  of  the  birds." 
True ;  had  you  to  do  with  it  personally  you 
would  not  wear  what  you  now  wear.  But 
were  it  not  for  multitudes  of  ladies  like  your- 
self, Bill  Jones,  bird-catcher,  would  turn  his 
mind  and  energies  to  other  avenues,  for  he 
would  no  longer  have  a  demand,  and  hence 
a  market,  each  year  to  supply. 

I  know  of  one  bird-catcher  who,  with  his 
assistants,  in  a  single  season  slaughtered  and 
took  the  skins  of  over  one  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  birds.  Think  what  this 
means  when  we  take  into  consideration 
the  few  days  of  the  very  short  season  devoted 
to  this ! 

And  what  does  this  indicate  in  women? 
I  would  not  be  unfair,  and  so  I  will  say  that 
to  me  it  indicates  chiefly  thoughtlessness  and 


22     EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

lack  of  imagination  on  her  part.  If  the  one 
who  now  decorates  herself  with  the  plumage 
of  her  slaughtered  fellow-creatures  could  be 
on  the  spot  with  Bill  Jones  and  see  the  crim- 
son life-blood  that  the  bleeding  heart  is  puls- 
ing out,  staining  even  the  feathers  that  she 
herself  will  wear — if  she  could  see  the  agonies 
of  the  death  struggle,  and  then  see  the  gap- 
ing mouths  of  the  starving  young  ones  in  the 
nest,  waiting  in  vain  for  the  return  of  the 
parent  bird  with  food — then,  I  am  sure,  she 
would  no  longer  be  a  victim  to  this  foolish, 
thoughtless,  heartless  habit.  No ;  I  have  too 
much  respect  for  and  faith  in  the  finer  sensi- 
bilities of  woman  to  believe  that  she  would. 
Once  in  a  while,  it  is  true,  we  will  find  a 
woman  so  wrapped  up  in  her  vain,  selfish, 
insane  desire  for  show  that,  notwithstanding 
the  realisation  on  her  part  of  all  we  have 
just  said,  she  would  nevertheless  demand 
this  sacrifice  to  minister  to  her  vanity. 

Were  I  a  woman  I  certainly  should  want 
to  be  among  the  forerunners  in  the  move- 
ment that  has  already  begun  along  this  line. 
I  would  rather  be  a  leader  in  setting  a  good 
fashion  than  a  follower  of  a  poor  and  posi- 
tively bad  one. 

And  you  will  be  surprised  what  beautiful 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     23 

hats  and  bonnets  can  be  devised  by  the 
woman  of  a  little  ingenuity,  without  the  aid 
of  birds'  plumage  or  feathers  of  any  kind. 
And  when  skilful  minds  and  hands  are  once 
turned  in  this  direction  we  shall  wonder  that 
this  relic-of-barbarism  mode  of  adornment, 
even  though  it  be  a  somewhat  modified  form 
of  it,  has  lasted  so  long. 

As  a  mother  I  would  keep  or  lead  my 
daughter  out  of  this  heartless  and  need- 
less practice  by  first  abandoning  it  myself. 
Children  are  so  quick  to  see  inconsistencies. 
Said  a  little  fellow  to  his  mates  the  other 
day :  "  I  know  why  teacher  don't  want  us 
to  rob  the  birds'  nests  and  kill  the  little 
birds.  She  wants  'em  to  grow  up  so  she 
can  wear  'em  on  her  bonnet."  And  when 
one  sees,  as  I  have  seen,  a  teacher  with 
the  skins  of  two  and  the  feathers  of  more 
birds  on  her  hat,  we  will  realise  that,  after 
all,  teaching  by  example  is  better  than  by 
precept,  or,  putting  it  in  another  form, 
teaching  by  precept  without  its  being  re- 
inforced by  example  is  of  but  little  value. 

But  for  the  people's  sakes,  as  well  as,  if 
not  even  more  than  for  the  bird's,  I  would 
urge  attention  to  and  action  along  this 
line.     The  tender  and  humane  passion   in 


24     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

the  human  heart  is  too  precious  a  quality 
to  allow  it  to  be  hardened  or  effaced  by 
practices  such  as  we  so  often  indulge  in. 
Even  from  an  economic  standpoint,  the 
service  that  birds  render  us  every  year,  so 
far  as  vegetation  is  concerned,  is  literally 
beyond  computation.  Were  they  all  killed 
off,  the  world  would  soon  become  practic- 
ally uninhabitable  for  man,  because  vegeta- 
tion each  year  would  be  so  thoroughly 
blighted  or  even  consumed  by  the  hordes 
of  insects  that  would  infest  it.  It  is  but 
necessary  to  realise  how  rapidly,  even  during 
the  past  several  years,  insect  life  has  been 
increasing  in  some  quarters,  so  as  to  tax 
to  the  utmost  the  skill  of  the  farmer,  the 
gardener,  and  the  fruit-grower.  Instead, 
then,  of  schooling  the  child  to  be  the  de- 
stroyer of  bird  life,  let  it  be  guided  along 
the  lines  of  being  its  lover  and  its  protector. 
And  if  those  who  use  them,  women  especi- 
ally, could  know  and  fully  realise  the  cruel 
and  at  times  almost  unspeakable  cruelty 
and  torture  that  attends  the  procuring  of 
their  sealskin  and  other  fur  or  fur-trinmied 
or  lined  garments,  I  am  sure  that  many  at 
least  would  begin  quietly  to  look  about  for 
garments  made  of  other  materials; — if  they 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     25 

could  know  of  the  seals  being  clubbed  to 
death  in  their  innocent  tameness  on  their 
native  ice  rocks,  of  the  other  fur-bearing 
animals  that  are  trapped,  remaining  for 
hours,  or  even  at  times  for  days,  with  leg 
or  legs  crushed  between  the  trap's  cruel 
and  relentless  steel  jaws,  before  the  merci- 
ful blow  comes  that  is  to  end  their  torture, 
when  it  has  not  already  died  from  its  torture 
or  from  starvation,  or  has  not  gnawed  its 
leg  from  the  trap  with  its  own  teeth  in 
order  to  escape — if  they  could  be  brought 
fully  to  realise  these  facts,  then  I  am  sure 
they  would  conclude  that  these  articles  are 
bought  with  a  price  greater  than  any  hu??tan 
being  can  afford  to  pay. 


Flesh  as  Food 

A  word  now  in  regard  to  another  matter 
that  is  of  far  more  importance  than  is 
generally  supposed — the  matter  of  the  ex- 
cessive flesh-eating  that  is  continually  going 
on  in  our  country.  After  looking  carefully 
into  the  matter,  and  after  some  years'  ex- 
perience in  its  non-use,  I  can  state  without 
hesitancy  that,  contrary  to  the  prevailing 
opinion,   the  flesh  of  animals  is  not  neces- 


26     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

sary  as  an  article  of  food.  But  few  are 
better  off  for  its  use,  while  the  great 
majority  are  the  worse  off  for  it,  and  especi- 
ally is  this  true  when  it  is  so  excessively 
used  as  we  find  it  now  on  every  hand. 

We  shall  find  numerous  articles  of  food, 
as  we  study  the  matter,  that,  so  far  as 
body  nourishing,  building,  and  sustaining 
qualities  are  concerned,  contain  twice,  and 
in  some  cases  over  twice,  as  much  as  any 
flesh  food  that  can  be  mentioned.  The 
liability  to  mistake  in  this  matter  lies  in 
the  fact  that  flesh  foods  when  taken  into 
the  stomach  burn,  oxygenise,  more  quickly 
than  most  other  foods  do,  and  this  short 
stimulating  effect,  resembling  more  or  less 
the  stimulating  effects  of  alcohol,  is  mis- 
taken for  a  body  nourishing  and  sustaining 
effect. 

Flesh  foods  stimulate  the  passions,  and 
more,  acting  as  a  stimulant  in  the  body, 
they  call  for  other  stimulants  to  feed  and 
satisfy  the  appetites  thus  aroused ;  and  some 
of  the  world's  most  eminent  physicians,  who 
have  looked  carefully  into  the  matter,  are 
declaring  that  the  excessive  amount  of 
whisky  and  beer  drinking,  with  its  attend- 
ant drunkenness  and   criuie,  will   never  be 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     27 

» 
done  away  with,  or  materially  lessened,  so 

long  as  this  excessive   eating  of  flesh  con- 
tinues. 

Numerous  other  things,  such  as  the  irrit- 
ability it  causes  in  the  natures  of  large 
numbers  of  people  who  use  it,  the  almost 
unconscious  blunting  of  many  of  the  finer 
senses,  as  also  the  dangers  attending  its  use, 
on  account  of  the  diseased  or  poisoned  con- 
dition of  meats  in  many  cases,  are  worthy 
of  a  very  serious  consideration.  If  space 
permitted,  many  facts  regarding  the  exceed- 
ingly large  number  of  diseased  animals  that 
are  eventually  sold  in  the  form  of  meat, 
facts  as  reported  by  various  boards  of  in- 
quiry, various  commissions,  etc.,  might  be 
cited ;  and  who  can  tell  when  such  may 
not  be  the  condition  of  that  of  which  he 
himself  is  partaking?  And  when  we  re- 
member the  vast  numbers  of  animals — cattle 
especially — that  are  angered  almost  to  de- 
speration, in  some  cases  literally  maddened 
by  anger,  and  when  we  remember  the 
peculiar  poison  that  reaches  every  part  of 
the  body  when  the  mind  is  thus  angered, 
and  that  in  this  state  large  numbers  of 
animals  are  killed,  we  can  readily  see  how 
important  this  aspect  of  the  matter  is. 


28     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

"  But  is  not  flesh-eating  natural  ?  "  I  hear 
it  asked.  "  Does  not  man  in  his  primitive, 
savage  state  make  use  of  flesh  naturally} 
Do  not  animals  devour  one  another  ?  "  Yes; 
but  we  are  not  savages,  nor  are  we  purely 
animals,  and  it  is  time  for  us  to  have  out- 
grown this  attendant-of-savage-life  custom. 
The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  considerably 
more  than  the  one-half  of  the  people  in 
the  world  to-day  are  not  flesh-eaters.  And 
many  peoples,  whom  large  numbers  in 
America  and  in  England,  for  example,  refer 
to  as  the  heathen,  and  send  missionaries  to 
Christianise,  are  far  ahead  of  us,  and  hence 
more  Christian  in  this  matter.  And  one 
reason  why  missionaries  in  many  parts  of 
India,  among  the  Buddhists  and  Brahmins, 
for  example,  have  been  so  comparatively 
unsuccessful  in  their  work  is  because  the 
majority  of  those  keen-minded  and  spiritu- 
ally unfolded  people  cannot  see  what 
superiority  there  is  in  the  religion  of  the 
one  whom  it  allows  to  kill,  cook,  and  feast 
upon  the  bodies  of  his  or  her  fellow-crea- 
tures, which  they  themselves  could  not  do. 

In  Bombay,  to  have  the  carcasses  of 
animals  exposed  to  public  view,  as  we  see 
them  in  the  stores  and  markets  here,  and 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     29 

at  times  scores  of  them  decorating  their 
windows  and  entire  fronts,  is  prohibited  by 
law. 

No,  experience  will  teach  you  that  if 
you  do  away  with  flesh-eating  and  get  in 
its  place  the  other  valuable  foods,  the  time 
will  quickly  come  when  you  will  care  less 
and  less  for  it ;  then  again,  the  time  will 
come  when  you  will  have  no  desire  for  it, 
and  finally,  you  will  grow  positively  to 
dislike  it  and  its  effects,  and  nothing  could 
induce  you  to  return  again  to  the  flesh- 
pots.  And  as  for  those  who  think  that 
the  ones  who  are  not  flesh  -  eaters  are 
necessarily  weaklings,  I  should  like  to 
match  a  friend  of  mine,  an  instructor  in 
one  of  our  great  American  universities, 
who  for  over  eighteen  years  has  eaten 
no  flesh  foods, — I  should  like  to  match 
him  with  any  whom  they  may  send  for- 
ward, when  it  comes  to  a  test  of  long- 
continued  work  and  endurance. 

In  London  there  are  already  numbers 
of  restaurants  where  no  flesh  foods  are 
served;  in  Berlin  there  are  already  about 
twenty,  and  their  number  in  these,  as 
well  as  in  numerous  other  cities,  is  con- 
tinually increasing.      It  is  a  matter  of  but 


30     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

a  short  time  when  there  will  be  numbers 
of  such  in  our  own  country.  The  only 
really  consistent  humanitarian  is  the  one 
who  is  not  a  flesh-eater;  and  great,  I  am 
satisfied,  will  be  the  results,  both  to  the 
human  family  and  to  the  animal  race,  as 
children  are  wisely  taught  and  judiciously 
directed  along  this  line. 

When  one  goes  into  the  better  restaurants 
where  no  flesh  foods  are  served,  in  England 
and  Germany  for  example,  he  is  impressed 
with  the  foundationless  excuse  of  so  many 
people,  that  it  is  hard,  or  even  impossible, 
to  get  along  without  flesh  foods.  In  the 
other  realms  will  be  found  an  abundance, 
a  hundred  or  a  thousand  times  over,  and 
especially  when  we  begin  to  give  some 
little  attention  to  the  great  varieties  of 
most  valuable  foods  there,  and  to  the 
exceedingly  appetising  ways  in  which  they 
can  be  prepared.  One  reason  why  such 
large  numbers  of  people  feel  that  meat  is 
a  necessity,  or  almost  a  necessity  with  them 
as  an  article  of  food,  is  because  in  our 
hotels  and  restaurants  and  cafes,  and,  in 
fact,  in  the  majority  of  our  homes,  the 
meat  element  forms  the  chief  portion  of 
the  foods  prepared  for  our  tables,  and  to  it, 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     31 

practically,  all  the  skill  in  preparation  is 
given;  while  the  other  things  are  looked 
upon  more  as  accessories,  and  are  many 
times  prepared  in  an  exceedingly  careless 
manner,  much  as  mere  accessories  would  be. 
But  with  a  decreasing  use  of  flesh  foods 
and  with  more  attention  given  to  the 
skilful  preparation  of  the  large  numbers  of 
other  still  more  valuable  foods,  we  shall 
begin  to  wonder  why  we  have  so  long  been 
slaves  to  a  mere  custom,  thinking  it  a 
necessity. 

An  eminent  Hindu  has  presented  some 
truths  along  the  lines  of  non-flesh  eating 
so  ably,  that  I  yield  to  the  impulse  to 
quote  from  him  quite  at  length  : 

"Animal  flesh  enriches  the  blood  with  un- 
necessary fibrin^  and  this  produces  unnatural 
heat  in  the  system,  and  in  turn  is  the  cause  of 
unusual  activity  and  restlessness,  ultimately  lead- 
ing to  the  nervous  debility  which  afflicts  many 
meat  eaters.  Constant  use  of  meat  increases 
the  action  of  the  heart  and  brings  premature 
loss  of  vital  forces.  Physiologists  and  compara- 
tive anatomists  like  Sir  Everard  Home  have 
shown  from  the  structure  of  the  teeth,  stomach, 
alimentary  canal,  the  microscopic  human  blood- 
corpuscles  and  the  digestive  processes,  that  man 


32     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

is  by  nature  more  related  to  frugivorous  animals 
than  to  the  carnivora. 

"From  the  chemical  analysis  of  different 
vegetables,  cereals,  fruits,  nuts,  etc.,  and  the 
flesh  of  different  animals,  and  from  the  com- 
parison of  the  constituent  properties  of  veget- 
ables with  those  of  animal  flesh,  it  can  be  shown 
that  everything  necessary  for  the  growth  of  the 
muscles,  for  the  strength  of  the  nerves,  and  for 
the  nourishment  of  the  whole  body  can  easily 
be  obtained  from  the  vegetable  kingdom.  This 
being  the  fact,  the  question  arises.  Why  do  we 
eat  animal  flesh  ?  Is  it  for  nourishment  ?  No. 
The  same  nourishment  can  be  obtained  from 
vegetables,  cereals,  and  pulses.  Is  it  for  health 
that  we  eat  meat  ?  No  ;  because  vegetarians, 
as  a  class,  are  healthier  than  the  majority  of 
meat-eaters.  Why,  then,  is  meat  eaten  ?  Be- 
cause of  the  habit  transmitted  from  generation 
to  generation,  and  because  of  superstition,  pre- 
judice and  ignorance. 

"  Various  objections  have  been  raised  by  meat 
eaters  against  vegetarianism.  Some  say  if  ani- 
mals are  not  used  for  food  they  will  overrun  the 
earth.  In  India  the  Hindus  do  not  kill  cows, 
but  they  are  not  overrun  by  them.  The  Hindus 
did  not  have  any  slaughter-houses  until  the 
British  Government  established  them.  In  the 
States  that  are  still  governed  by  the  Hindu 
Rijas  the  wild  animals  and  birds  are  protected 
by  strict  laws.     But  these  States  are  not  over- 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE    33 

run  by  wild  animals,  nor  are  the  inhabitants 
driven  out  by  them.  Others  hold  that  unless 
they  eat  animal  flesh  they  will  be  weak  and 
useless  for  work  and  will  lack  bravery  and 
courage.  This  is  a  great  mistake.  You  have 
heard  of  the  Hindu  Sikh  soldiers  in  India,  who 
are  the  bravest  and  strongest  fighters  in  the 
British  army.  They  never  turn  their  back  to 
an  enemy  in  the  battlefield.  One  Sikh  soldier 
can  stand  against  three  beef-eaters  in  hand-to- 
hand  fight.  But  these  soldiers  never  touch 
meat,  nor  fish,  never  drink  wine,  nor  smoke 
tobacco.  They  are  strict  vegetarians.  A  vege- 
tarian diet  gives  great  endurance  and  makes 
one  even-tempered.  People  generally  mistake  a 
ferocious,  restless,  and  rash  temper  for  courage 
and  strength.  These  say  that  a  tiger  or  a  wolf 
is  stronger  than  a  horse,  a  buffalo  or  an  elephant. 
They  make  ferocious  nature  the  standard  of 
strength.  It  is  true  that  a  tiger  can  kill  a 
horse,  but  has  he  the  muscular  strength  which 
enables  a  horse  to  draw  a  heavy  load  a  long 
distance  ?  A  tiger  can  kill  an  elephant,  but  can 
he  lift  a  cannon  weighing  hundreds  of  pounds  ? 
Ferocity  is  one  thing  and  muscular  strength  is 
another :  we  ought  to  distinguish  the  one  from 
the  other.  The  source  of  strength  lies  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom  and  not  in  flesh  and  blood. 
If  flesh  eating  be  the  condition  of  physical 
strength,  why  do  meat-eaters  prefer  the  flesh  of 
herbivorous  animals  and  not  that  of  the  car- 


34     EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

nivora?  Some  meat-eaters  say  that  animal 
flesh  has  a  large  quantity  of  vegetable  energy 
concentrated  in  a  small  compass.  If  that  be 
their  reason  for  the  meat  -  eating  habit,  they 
ought  to  live  on  the  flesh  of  carnivorous  animals 
and  birds,  such  as  tigers,  wolves,  vultures,  and 
hawks. 

"As  in  the  animal  kingdom  the  carnivora  are 
more  restless  than  the  herbivora,  so  amongst 
men  we  find  that  meat-eaters  are  more  restless 
and  less  self-controlled  than  vegetarians.  As  a 
peaceful,  poised  and  self-controlled  nature  is  the 
first  sign  of  spiritual  progress,  it  is  plain  that 
animal  food  is  not  the  most  helpful  diet  for 
spiritual  development." 

The  time  will  come  in  the  world's  history, 
and  a  movement  is  setting  in  that  direction 
even  now,  when  it  will  be  deemed  as  strange 
a  thing  to  find  a  man  or  a  woman  who  eats 
flesh  as  food,  as  it  is  now  to  find  a  man  or 
a  woman  who  refrains  from  eating  it.  And 
personally,  I  share  the  belief  with  many 
others,  that  the  highest  mental,  physical,  and 
spiritual  excellence  will  come  to  a  person 
only  when,  among  other  things,  he  refrains 
from  a  flesh  and  blood  diet. 

Personally,  I  shall  be  glad,  as  long  as 
forces  and  agencies  are  at  work  that  tend 
to  keep  armies  in  the  field,  if  we  awaken, 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     35 

and  that  almost  instantly,  to  the  dangers 
attending  the  health  of  troops  in  service 
from  the  large  amount  of  "  canned  meats  " 
that  are  used  in  connection  with  army 
rations.  I  believe,  and  I  think  I  should 
be  fully  borne  out  by  the  facts  if  they 
could  be  thoroughly  known,  that  thousands 
of  deaths  due  to  disease  have  been  to  a 
great  extent  induced  or  helped  on  through 
this  agency.  The  evidence  brought  out  in 
the  investigations  along  this  line,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  American  forces  which  served 
but  recently  in  the  Spanish-American  war 
— the  conclusions  of  which  were  presented 
to  the  people  as  skilfully  as  possible,  and 
were  then  allowed  to  drop  as  quickly  as 
possible — should  have  no  small  weight  with 
us  as  a  people.  If  it  were  to  receive  the 
attention  it  really  demands,  many  thousands 
of  lives  might  be  saved  in  the  future  that 
otherwise  may  be  needlessly  sacrificed. 

Were  such  a  food  necessary,  it  would 
then  be  a  different  matter ;  but  when  there 
are  other  foods,  even  more  valuable  so  far 
as  body-building  and  nourishing  and  sus- 
taining qualities  are  concerned,  and  more 
free  from  the  poisoned  and  loathsome  con- 
ditions that  so  much  of  the  canned  meats 


36    EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

get  into,  especially  in  hot  climates — foods 
that  can  be  transported  just  as  readily;  in 
fact,  prepared  in  a  similar  way  and  ready 
for  immediate  use — then  we  can  readily  see 
the  criminal  folly  in  allowing  a  continuance 
of  its  use,  at  least  in  such  quantities  as 
it  is  at  present  used. 

And  there  is  another  matter  of  grave 
importance  that  we  should  not  be  allowed 
to  lose  sight  of  in  this  connection.  The 
brutality  to  the  animal  creation,  which  as  a 
weaker  creation  we  should  protect  and  care 
for,  has  its  corresponding  and  balancing 
element  in  connection  with  our  duty  to 
those  who  are  hired  to  do  our  butchery  for 
us.  And  here  let  me  quote  a  paragraph 
from  Mr  Henry  Salt,  the  well-known 
English  humanitarian  thinker  and  worker  : 

"  But  this  question  of  butchery  is  not  merely 
one  of  kindness  or  unkindness  to  animals,  for 
by  the  very  facts  of  the  case  it  is  a  human 
question  of  no  slight  importance,  affecting  as  it 
does  the  social  and  moral  welf;\re  of  those  more 
immediately  concerned  in  it.  Of  all  recognised 
occupations  by  which,  in  civilised  countries,  a 
livelihood  is  sought  and  obtained,  the  work 
which  is  looked  upon  with  the  greatest  loathing 
(next  to  the  hangman's)  is  that  of  the  butcher, 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     37 

as  witness  the  opprobrious  sense  which  the 
word  'butcher'  has  acquired.  Owing  to  the 
instinctive  horror  of  bloodshed  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  all  normal  civilised  beings,  the 
trade  of  doing  to  death  countless  numbers  of 
inoffensive  and  highly  organised  creatures, 
amid  scenes  of  indescribable  filth  and  ferocity, 
is  delegated  to  a  pariah  class  of  'slaugliter- 
men,'  who  are  thus  themselves  made  the  victims 
of  a  grievous  social  wrong.  '  I  'm  only  doing 
your  dirty  work  ;  it 's  such  as  yoic  makes  such 
as  us^  is  said  to  have  been  the  remark  of  a 
Whitechapel  butcher  to  a  flesh-eating  gentle- 
man who  remonstrated  with  him  for  his  brut- 
ality ;  and  the  remark  was  a  perfectly  just  one. 
To  demand  a  product  which  can  only  be 
procured  at  the  cost  of  the  intense  suffering  of 
the  animal,  and  the  deep  degradation  of  the 
butcher,  and  by  a  process  which  not  one  flesh- 
eater  in  a  hundred  would  himself,  under  any 
circumstances,  perform,  or  even  witness,  is 
conduct  as  callous,  selfish,  and  unsocial  as  could 
well  be  imagined.  .  .  .  To  have  accustomed 
one's  self  to  a  total  disregard  for  the  pleading 
terror  of  sensitive  animals,  and  to  a  murderous 
use  of  the  knife  is  a  terrible  power  for  society 
to  put  into  the  hands  of  its  lowest  and  least 
responsible  members.  The  blame  must  ulti- 
mately fall  on  society  itself,  and  not  on  the 
mdividual  slaughterman." 

Chicago  has  gained,  temporarily,  at  least. 


38     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

the  reputation  of  being  the  great  slaughter- 
city  of  the  world.  Some  of  Chicago's  first 
officials  in  the  police  department  have 
given  us  many  facts  showing  the  direct 
connection  between  the  influence  of  this 
trade,  or  rather  this  "business,"  and  some 
of  the  most  shocking  crimes  that  the  city 
has  known  of  late  years,  for  large  numbers 
of  these  have  been  perpetrated  by  men 
engaged  in  this  business,  who  have  been 
gradually  reaping  the  deteriorating  effects 
of  its  influence. 

"No  one  who  goes  to  Chicago,"  says  a  writer 
in  the  Neii>  Age,  "  should  fail  to  see  the 
shambles.  They  are  the  most  wicked  things 
in  creation  ;  they  are  sickening  beyond  descrip- 
tion. The  men  in  them  are  more  brutes  than 
the  animals  they  slaughter.  Missions  and 
institutes  have  been  built  in  respectable  parts 
of  the  cities  from  the  profits,  and  the  employees 
themselves  have  been  left  to  go  straight  down 
to  the  devil.  ...  It  is  the  duty  of  everyone 
interested  in  social  questions,  of  everyone 
whose  demands  necessitate  this  kind  of  labour, 
to  wade  through  this  filth  to  see  those  poor 
wretches  at  work." 

One  who  visited  one  of  the  Kansas  city 
packing-houses,    where   many   thousands   of 


EVERY  LIVING   CREATURE     39 

animals  are  killed  daily,  and  where  some 
thousands  of  men  and  boys  are  employed, 
writes  as  follows  : — 

"  Inside  the  vast  slaughter-house  it  looked 
like  a  battle-field — the  floors  were  crimson  ;  the 
men  were  deep-dyed  from  head  to  foot.  It  was 
a  sickening  spectacle.  There  the  cattle  were 
driven  into  pens,  scores  at  a  time,  and  the  echo 
of  the  pole-axes  was  heard  hke  the  riveting  of 
plates  in  a  ship-building  yard.  Then  the  gate 
fronts  were  raised,  and  the  kicking  animals 
were  shot  on  to  the  floor,  to  be  seized  by  the 
hoofs  by  chains,  and  hoisted  to  the  ceiling,  and 
sent  flying  on  their  way  to  rows  of  men,  who 
waited  with  knives,  and  skinned  and  quartered 
and  washed  them." 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  facts,  and 
in  the  light  of  many  more  that  might  be 
presented,  we  can  readily  see  that  each  one 
who  aids  in  creating  the  demand  for  flesh 
foods  is  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  not 
indirectly  but  directly,  responsible  for  the 
degrading  and  dehumanising  influences  at 
work  in  the  lives  of  many  thousands  of 
their  fellow-men.  We  are  our  brother's 
keeper  whenever  it  comes  to  a  matter  that 
we  are  personally  involved  in,  and  there 
are    responsibilities    that   we    cannot    shift 


40     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

after   we   are   once   made    acquainted   with 
the  facts  pertaining  to  them. 

May  I  present  here  a  few  additional 
thoughts  along  this  Hne,  given  utterance  to 
by  that  very  clear-thinking  woman,  Annie 
Besant : 

"We  may  adopt  a  bloodless  diet  to  purify 
the  body,  or  in  order  that  we  may  have  a 
body  that  will  be  less  an  obstacle  to  intel- 
lectual and  moral  growth  ;  and  such  reasons 
as  these  justify  the  practice,  and  no  man  or 
woman  need  be  ashamed  to  confess  them. 
But  still  deeper  and  more  attractive  than  such 
an  object  is  our  principle^  our  recognition  of 
the  unity  of  life  in  all  that  is  around  us,  and 
that  we  are  but  parts  of  that  one  universal  life. 
When  we  recognise  that  unity  of  all  living 
things,  then  at  once  arises  the  question — How 
can  we  support  this  life  of  ours  with  least 
injury  to  the  lives  around  us  ?  How  can  we 
prevent  our  own  life  adding  to  the  suffering  of 
the  world  in  which  we  live  ?  .  .  .  And  at  once 
we  begin  to  see  that,  in  our  relations  to  the 
animal  kingdom,  a  duty  arises  which  all 
thoughtful  and  compassionate  minds  should 
recognise  —  the  duty  that,  because  we  are 
stronger  in  mind  than  the  animals,  we  are,  or 
ought  to  be,  their  _s^iiardians  and  helpers,  not 
their  /yrants  and  of)/>ressars,  and  we  have  no 
right  to  cause  them  sutfering  and  terror  merely 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     41 

for  the  gratification  of  the  palate,  merely  for 
an  added  luxury  to  our  own  lives. 

"...  Thus  looking  upon  the  animal  king- 
dom, a  sense  of  duty  awakens  within  us  ;  we 
feel  that  they  are  not  intended  simply  to  be 
slaves  of  men's  whims,  to  be  victims  of  his 
fancies  and  desires  ;  they  are  living  crealures, 
showing  forth  a  Divine  life,  in  lesser  measure 
than  ourselves,  it  may  be,  but  it  is  the  same 
Divine  life  that  is  the  heart  of  their  heart,  and 
the  soul  of  their  soul. 

"  The  animal  evolves  under  the  fostering  in- 
telligence of  man.  The  horse,  the  bullock,  the 
dog,  the  elephant,  any  of  the  creatures  that 
are  around  us  in  different  lands,  all  develop 
a  growing  intelligence  as  they  come  into 
healthful  relations  with  their  elder  brethren, 
men  and  women.  We  find  that  they  answer 
with  love  to  our  love,  and  also  w-ith  growing 
intelligence  ;  and  we  begin  to  realise  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  train  and  help  that  growth  by 
making  them  co-workers  with  ourselves,  to 
develop  their  intelligence  by  human  com- 
panionship ;  and  not  to  slaughter  them  and 
thus  make  a  gulf  of  blood  between  them  and 
mankind. 

"  Surely  man  should  not  go  through  nature 
leaving  behind  him  a  track  of  destruction,  of 
misery,  of  hideous  injury. 

"...  So  that  one  standpoint  we  may  take 
up  as    Food    Relormers    is   the   standpoint  of 


42     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

Love,  of  recognition  of  our  true  place  in  the 
world.  Not  only  that  we  may  have  cleaner 
materials  in  our  bodies,  not  only  that  we  may 
have  a  better  instrument  for  our  minds  and 
souls  to  work  with,  but  that  ive  may  be  better 
channels  of  Dtvitte  Love  to  the  world  on  every 
side.  For  this  reason,  fundamentally,  I  am  a 
vegetarian,  and  I  would  not  take  for  myself, 
needlessly,  the  life  of  any  sentient  creature 
that  lives  around  me. 

"...  But  no  one  can  eat  the  flesh  of  a 
slaughtered  animal  without  having  used  the 
hand  of  a  man  as  slaughterer.  Suppose 
that  we  had  to  kill  for  ourselves  the  creatures 
whose  bodies  we  would  fain  have  upon  our 
table,  is  there  one  woman  in  a  hundred  who 
would  go  to  the  slaughter-house  to  slay  the 
bullock,  the  calf,  the  sheep,  or  the  pig  ?  Nay, 
is  there  one  in  a  hundred  who  would  not 
shrink  from  going  to  see  it  done,  who  would 
not  be  horrified  to  stand  ankle  deep  in  blood, 
and  see  the  carcasses  lying  there  just  after  the 
animals  were  slain  ?  But  if  we  could  not  do 
it,  nor  see  it  done  ;  if  we  are  so  refined 
that  we  cannot  allow  close  contact  between 
ourselves  and  the  butchers  who  furnish  this 
food ;  if  we  feel  that  they  are  so  coarsened  by 
their  trade  that  their  very  bodies  are  made 
repulsive  by  the  constant  contact  of  the  blood 
with  which  they  must  be  continually  be- 
smirched ;  if  we  recognise  the  physical  coarse- 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     43 

ness  which  results  inevitably  from  such  contact, 
dare  we  call  ourselves  refined  if  ive  purchase 
our  refinement  by  the  brutalisation  of  others^ 
and  demand  that  some  should  be  brutal  in 
order  that  we  may  eat  the  results  of  their 
brutality  ?  We  are  not  free  from  the  brutal- 
ising  results  of  that  trade  simply  because  ive 
take  no  direct  part  in  it. 

"...  And  everyone  who  eats  flesh  meat 
has  part  in  that  brutalisation  ;  everyone  who 
uses  what  they  provide  is  guilty  of  this 
degradation  of  his  fellow-men. 

"...  I  ask  you  to  recognise  your  duty  as  men 
and  women,  who  should  raise  the  Race,  not 
degrade  it  ;  who  should  try  to  make  it  divifie, 
not  brutal ;  who  should  try  to  make  it  pure, 
not  foul ;  and  therefore,  in  the  name  of  Human 
Brotherhood,  I  appeal  to  you  to  leave  your  own 
tables  free  from  the  stain  of  blood,  and  your 
consciences  free  from  the  degradation  of  your 
fellow-men." 

If  the  one  who  uses  pate  de  foie  gras, 
ortolan,  and  other  abnormally  formed  things 
of  this  type,  will  look  a  little  into  the 
methods  by  which  they  are  obtained,  with 
all  their  agonising  and  slowly  dying  torture 
attendants,  I  dare  say  he  will  then  use 
them  no  longer ;  he  will  not,  indeed,  if 
there  is  in  him  a  nature  that  can  truly  be 
described   by   the  word   human  in  distinc- 


44     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

tion  from  that  of  brutal.  It  is  our  thoughts 
and  our  acts,  or  our  compHcity  in  the  acts 
of  others,  that  determine  whether  at  any 
given  time  we  are  nearest  akin  to  the  brute 
or  the  human. 

It  happened  not  long  ago,  in  looking  over 
the  advertising  pages  of  one  of  our  great 
monthly  magazines,  that  my  attention  was 
called  to  a  whole-page  advertisement  of  one 
of  Chicago's  packing-houses.  In  connection 
with  this  advertisement  numbers  of  figures 
were  given,  among  which  were  the  follow- 
ing :— 

"Six  packing-houses,  sixty-five  acres  of 
buildings.  Handled  last  year,  1,437,844 
cattle,  2,658,951  sheep,  3,928,659  hogs. 
18,433  employees." 

Here,  then,  is  a  total  of  a  little  over 
8,000,000  animals  slaughtered  in  a  single 
year  by  one  concern,  and  when  we  take  into 
consideration  the  number  of  other  concerns 
of  similar  magnitude,  and  also  the  thousands 
of  other  slaughter-houses  in  the  various  cities 
and  villages  throughout  the  country,  we  can 
perhaps  form  at  least  some  idea  of  the  vast 
proportions  of  this  traffic  in  blood.  And 
when  we  take  into  consideration  that  in  this 
one  concern  over   18,000  people  were  em- 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     45 

ployed,  we  can  also  form  some  slight  con- 
ception of  the  large  number  of  men,  women, 
and  children  throughout  the  country  who  are 
brought  under  the  influences  which  we  have 
been  considering. 

And  then,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  though 
the  connection  is  natural,  I  turned  a  page  or 
two  and  my  eye  fell  upon  the  advertisement, 
also  a  full-page  advertisement,  of  a  large 
brewing  concern.  The  advertisement  in  part 
ran  as  follows  : — 

"When  219  carloads  of Beer  were 

shipped  to  Manila  the  world  wondered.  What 
industry  was  this  that  shipped  its  product 
by  a  mile  and  a  half  of  trains  to  that  re- 
mote spot? 

'*  Yet  that  enterprise  has  been  repeated  a 
hundred  times  over.      Wherever  civilisation 

has  gone Beer  has  followed.      Agencies 

have  for  twenty  years  been  established  in 
many  of  the  farthest  parts  of  the  earth. 

" Beer   has  been  known   in    South 

Africa  since  the  white  man  went  there.  It  is 
shipped  in  large  quantities  to  the  frigid  wilds 
of  Siberia.  It  is  advertised  in  the  quaint 
newspapers  of  China  and  Japan.  It  is  the 
beer  of  India,  the  beverage  of  the  Egyptian 
and  the  Turk. 


46     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

"  It  is  too  little  to  say  that  the  sun  never 

sets   on agencies,    for   it    is    literally 

true  that  it  is  always  noonday  at  one  of 
them." 

Marvellous  indeed  is  the  enterprise  of  the 
great  nation,  so  magnificently  equipped  for 
carrying,  among  other  things,  a  flesh  and 
blood,  a  whisky  and  beer  civilisation,  which 
we  complacently  denominate  by  the  term 
Christian,  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth 
and  to  the  benighted  peoples  who  stand 
so  in  need  of  these  "civilising"  influences; 
peoples,  moreover,  who  are  so  obtuse  and 
so  "  stubborn "  in  the  face  of  their  bene- 
volent Anglo-Saxon  well-wishers,  that  many 
times  these  civilising  influences  can  enter 
only  after  the  blood  of  numbers  of  their 
bravest,  most  highly  educated  and  patriotic 
sons  has  been  spilled,  through  the  agency 
of  rifles,  bayonets,  and  Catling  guns. 

Sport  and  War 

It  does  not  require  any  great  amount  of 
mental  power  to  be  able  to  trace  the  direct 
connection  between  a  spirit  of  kindness  and 
consideration  and  care  for  the  animal  world 
and  a  kindred  spirit  of  kindness,  care,  and 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     47 

consideration  for  all  of  the  human  kind, 
as  also  between  this  and  a  tendency  to  settle 
differences  of  opinion,  or  disputes,  by  the 
thoroughly  wise  and  economical  method  of 
conciliation  and  arbitration  in  distinction 
from  the  thoroughly  unwise,  expensive,  and 
degrading  method  of  swagger  and  bravado, 
which  leads  so  often  to  a  resort  to  force 
in  the  form  of  individual,  or  corporate,  or 
national  murder. 

There  is  a  direct  connection  between 
"pig-sticking"  and  man-bayoneting.  There 
is  a  direct  connection  between  the  foremost 
representatives  of  a  great  nation,  and  a  large 
class  that  ape  and  follow  them,  in  shooting 
hundreds  of  pheasants  or  partridges  in  a 
single  day,  and  a  spirit  of  reckless  bravado 
that  easily  leads  the  nation  into  war  with 
another  nation  when  complications  arise,  or 
when,  through  the  agency  of  superior  force, 
it  can  gain  its  ends  in  appropriating  to  itself 
the  wealth  of  the  goldfields  or  the  territory 
of  a  smaller  or  weaker  people. 

There  is  a  direct  connection  between  an 
Emperor's  proclivity  for  killing  that  leads 
him  and  his  party  ruthlessly  and  flippantly  to 
shoot  two  or  three  thousand  pheasants  in  a 
single  day  and  to  pride  themselves  upon  the 


48     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

achievement,  and  words  such  as  were  recently 
addressed  to  a  portion  of  the  army  at  the 
head  of  which  he  temporarily  is,  enjoining 
them,  above  all  things,  to  go  out  with  revenge 
as  their  watchword,  on  account  of  certain 
indignities  shown  to  a  few  citizens  of  that 
country  in  the  far  East  recently.  The  spec- 
tacle of  one  who  prides  himself  upon  being 
the  head  of  a  Christian  nation,  counselling 
and  arousing  and  fostering  a  spirit  of  re- 
venge is  indeed  anomalous.  But  the  step 
is  not  a  long  one  from  blood-spilling  in 
the  animal  world  to  the  same  in  connec- 
tion with  human  beings,  and  to  a  spirit  of 
hatred  and  revenge  which  shows  that  most 
essential  elements  of  a  tme  Christiafi  char- 
acter are  wanting. 

There  is  a  direct  connection  between  the 
unwise,  expensive,  and  thoroughly  unstates- 
manlike  method  of  dealing  with  the  recent 
differences  in  South  Africa,  and  the  Royal 
Buckhounds  which  to-day  ornament — no,  not 
ornament,  but  disgrace — the  Queen's  Court. 
The  time  is  coming  when  the  practice  of 
tame  deer  hunting  will  be  as  much  looked 
down  upon,  and  condemned  as  brutal  and 
unworthy  English  gentlemen,  as  the  buU- 
and  bear-  baiting  that  prevailed  so  univer- 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     49 

sally  in  Elizabeth's  day  are  at  the  present 
time. 

The  time  is  coming  when  in  England,  in 
Germany,  in  America,  in  every  nation,  the 
people  will  find  that  there  is  a  higher  duty 
than  that  of  following  the  leadership  of 
men  miscalled  statesmen,  because  lacking  in 
that  spirit  of  honest,  frank  consideration  and 
conciliation,  through  lack  of  which  disputes 
are  allowed  to  come  to  a  settlement  by  force 
of  arms,  the  consequent  burden  being 
thrown  upon  the  people  to  bear.  The  time 
is  coming  when  we  shall  find  that  this  is  not 
patriotism,  but  that  patriotism  is  that  ready 
service  which  works  for  the  people's  highest 
welfare,  and  that  the  people's  highest  wel- 
fare is  served  most  by  keeping  their  country, 
among  other  things,  out  of  expensive  and 
demoralising  bloody  warfare,  rather  than  by 
getting  it  into  war.  It  was  the  President  of 
the  American  Humane  Education  Society 
who  most  truthfully  said :  "  Unnecessary 
wars  are  simply  wholesale  murder,  and  the 
men  who  cause  them  [however  high  their 
positions]  are  the  greatest  and  worst  of 
criminals." 

It  is  the  same  spirit  of  killing  and  "pig- 
sticking,"   and    looking    upon    the    animal 


50     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

world  simply  as  something  to  use  for  our 
own  pleasure  or  gain,  without  any  con- 
sideration of  their  rights,  and  without  any 
impulse  to  care  for  and  treat  them  kindly, 
that  fosters  that  thoroughly  insane  imperial- 
istic tendency  that  has  gained  such  footing 
in  England  of  late,  endangering  the  very 
existence  of  the  empire,  and  demanding  the 
enormous  price  to  be  paid  that  is  being 
demanded  to-day.  The  same  imperialistic 
tendency  in  America  has  lately  brought 
the  nation  dangerously  near  to  the  parting 
of  the  ways,  one  of  which  leads  to  the 
continual  upbuilding  of  a  republic,  the 
pride  of  all  time,  the  other  to  its  gradual 
undermining,  by  transforming  it  into  an 
empire  —  if  not  in  name,  in  reality  —  and 
thus  sending  it,  through  the  violation  of 
great  elemental  laivs,  to  the  same  ends 
that  all  nations  that  have  adopted  a  similar 
course  have  or  must  inevitably  come  to.* 
It  is  this  spirit,  a  tendency  to  which  has 
been  witnessed  in  America  but  recently, 
which  will  gradually  blunt,  and  in  time 
entirely  kill,  the  quick,  noble,  and  God-like 
expression  of  sympathy  for  a  people  strug- 
gling for  freedom  and  liberty.     The  destiny 

•There  is  a  world  wide  difference  between  territorial  and 
national  expansion  in  acrnrdance  with  just  and  rigliteoiis  laws 
and  an  aggressive  and  in  time  sell-destructive  imperialism. 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     51 

and  power  of  the  American  nation  depends 
upon  the  fostering  of  the  spirit  of  kindli- 
ness, love  of  fair  play,  and  desire  for  con- 
ciliation, and  hence  of  peace,  in  distinction 
from  the  spirit  of  militarism  which  great 
corporate  interests  and  corporate  politicians 
would  have  dominant  in  the  country. 

When  the  interests  of  the  people  are 
zealously  guarded  and  righteously  cared  for, 
then  when  an  emergency  arises  and  there 
is  a  call  to  arms  for  defensive  purposes, 
the  only  possible  justification  of  any  resort 
to  arms,  the  nation  will  find  that  it  has 
a  citizen  soldiery  as  vast  as  the  numbers 
of  its  male  population,  and  far  more  effective 
in  the  long  run,  than  any  hired  body  of 
soldiery  can  possibly  ever  be.  And  instead 
of  supporting  a  vast  army  of  men  who  are 
producing  nothing,  contributing  nothing  to 
the  nation's  welfare,  but  living  upon  the 
labour  of  others,  and  waiting  merely  for 
orders  to  shoot,  mangle,  and  do  to  death 
men,  fellow-men  of  another  nation,  each 
will  be  working  for  himself  and  for  all,  and 
will  be  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  labour. 
It  is  to  humane  education  that  we  must  look 
to  save  us  from  the  monstrous  system  of 
militarism  which  at  present  prevails  in  the 
larger  share  of  European   countries. 


52     EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

In  passing  through  Germany  not  long 
since,  I  was  particularly  impressed  with  see- 
ing in  fields  here  and  there  large  companies 
of  soldiers  drilling  and  manoeuvring,  while 
in  the  fields  on  all  sides  of  them,  were  num- 
bers chiefly  of  women  and  children,  and 
oxen  and  horses  hard  at  work.  This  con- 
dition prevails  to  a  great  extent  over  the 
greater  part  of  Germany.  It  is  so,  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  in  the  other  Euro- 
pean nations  where  the  military  system  has 
grown  to  such  enormous  proportions. 

To  seek  neither  the  gold  fields  nor  the 
territory  of  other  peoples,  to  live  in  peace 
with  all  nations  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  to  be 
willing  in  all  cases  to  give  jusiice,  as  we  are 
quick  to  demand  it,  to  believe  thoroughly 
that  there  are  no  questions  or  complica- 
tions arising  that  cannot  be  settled  by  con- 
ciliation and  arbitration  if  there  is  the  ear- 
nest sincere  desire  to  do  so,  and  to  have 
in  public  office  men  who  are  imbued  with 
this  idea,  refusing  admittance  to  those  who 
are  not  wise  enough  to  be  guided  by  this 
principle,  but  in  whom  the  spirit  of  swag- 
ger, brow-beating,  and  bravado  prevails — in 
these,  among  other  things,  lies  the  hope, 
the    healthfulness,  the    great    and   growing 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     53 

power,  the  future  grandeur  of  the  American 
nation.  It  is  in  this  way  that  she  can  pre- 
serve and  maintain  and  continually  increase 
her  unique  position  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

This  reign  of  peace  is  indeed  the  con- 
dition that  all  people  who  are  humanely 
inclined,  all  people  who  are  lovers  of 
animals,  should  work  to  bring  about,  and 
thus  to  save  the  many  thousands  of  horses 
and  mules  and  oxen  the  inhuman  treat- 
ment and  the  terrific  suffering  to  which 
they  are  always  subjected  when  a  war  is 
in  progress.  The  treatment  that  thousands 
of  animals  have  been  subjected  to  both 
on  transport  and  on  train,  and  on  the  field 
in  South  Africa  during  the  past  few  months, 
is  a  burning  disgrace  to  the  British  nation. 
Brutalities  have  been  engaged  in  and  con- 
doned, that  would  not  be  countenanced  for 
an  instant  by  the  government  of  this  or 
any  other  nation  at  all  civilised,  in  ordinary 
circumstances.  The  very  nature  of  the  con- 
ditions, of  course,  makes  it  hard  for  the 
noble  and  willing  animals  to  be  carefully 
attended  to  and  mercifully  treated.  And 
this  is  greatly  accentuated  by  the  fact  that 
every  diabolical   agency  is   L-t   loose  which 


54     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

increases  the  spirit  that  actuates  the  ill- 
treatment  and  the  most  awful  abuses  on 
the  part  of  those  who  have  the  animals 
in  charge.  But  this  very  fact  makes  it 
all  the  more  imperative  for  those  who  value 
humane  education,  to  work  all  the  more 
zealously  and  unceasingly  for  its  universal 
advancement,  so  that  conditions  of  this 
kind  may  be  prevented,  and  the  causes 
of  a  terrible  amount  of  suffering  to  hosts 
of  noble  animals  may  be  done  away  with. 

The  time  is  coming  when  practically  all, 
with  Cowper,  will  say  and  feel: 

"  I  would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends, 
Though  graced  with  polished  manners  and 

fine  sense. 
Yet  wanting  in  sensibility,  the  man 
Who  needlessly  sets  foot  upon  a  worm." 

This  is  our  ultimate  destiny,  though  we 
have  been  coming  up  the  steep  most 
tardily. 

Personally,  1  would  rather  be  the  author, 
and  have  the  rare  unfoldment  of  heart  and 
sympathy  of  the  author,  of  the  following 
httle  stanzas,  than  be  the  greatest  military 
leader  in  the  world  to-day : — 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     55 

"Across  the  narrow  beach  we  flit, 

One  little  sandpiper  and  I  ; 
And  fast  I  gather,  bit  by  bit. 

The  scattered  driftwood  bleached  and  dry. 
The  wild  waves  reach  their  hands  for  it, 

The  wild  wind  raves,  the  tide  runs  high, 
As  up  and  down  the  beach  we  flit, — 

One  little  sandpiper  and  I. 

I  watch  him  as  he  skims  along, 

Uttering  his  faint  and  mournful  cry  ; 
He  starts  not  at  my  fitful  song, 

Or  flash  of  fluttering  drapery  ; 
He  has  no  thought  of  any  wrong, 

He  scans  me  with  a  fearless  eye, — 
Staunch  friends  are  we,  well-tried  and  strong, 

The  little  sandpiper  and  I. 

Comrade,  where  wilt  thou  be  to-night, 

When  the  loosed  storm  breaks  furiously  ? 
My  driftwood  fire  will  burn  so  bright  ! 

To  what  warm  shelter  canst  thou  fly? 
I  do  not  fear  for  thee  though  wroth 

The  tempest  rushes  through  the  sky  ; 
For  are  we  not  God's  children  both, 

Thou,  little  sandpiper,  and  I." 

Instead  of  the  spirit  of  destruction  and 
the  desire  to  gain  something  for  ourselves, 
to  kill  something,  to  tear  something  from 
its  life,  even  at  the  expense  of  breaking  up 


56     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

that  wonderful  harmony  which  reigns  in 
God's  world,  we  need  the  spirit  which 
animated  Emerson  when  he  wrote  the 
lines  entitled  "  Forbearance  "  : 

"  Hast  thou  named  all  the  birds  without  a  gun  ? 
Loved  the  wood-rose,  and  left  it  on  its  stalk  ? 
At  rich  men's  tables  eaten  bread  and  pulse  ? 
Unarmed,  faced  danger  with  a  heart  of  trust  ? 
And  loved  so  well  a  high  behaviour, 
In  man  or  maid,  that  thou  from  speech  re» 

frained. 
Nobility  more  nobly  to  repay? 
O,  be  my  friend,  and  teach  me  to  be  thine  ! " 

Treatment  of  Criminals 

In  the  degree  that  moral,  heart,  humane 
training  finds  its  place  among  us  as  a  people, 
in  that  degree  shall  we  come  nearer  a  wise 
and  humane  method  of  treatment,  so  far  as 
the  more  unfortunate  ones  among  us,  whom 
we  denominate  by  the  term  "criminal,"  is 
concerned.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  we 
have  not  as  yet  found  the  true  method  of 
dealing  with  these  our  fellow-beings.  Our 
methods  deal  too  much  with  punishment, 
and  not  enough  with  unfoldment,  and  there- 
by prevention.  Our  methods  in  the  long 
run   tend   to   make   criminals,  and   to  per- 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     57 

petuate  criminals,  rather  than  to  prevent 
them  or  to  transform  them  into  law-abiding 
and  honourable  citizens.  When  a  man 
makes  a  mistake  that  any  of  us  might  have 
made,  and  that  possibly  under  like  condi- 
tions many  of  us  would  have  made,  the 
spirit  of  punishment  for  the  sake  of  punish- 
ment, even  to  the  extent  of  revenge,  so 
holds  us  as  a  people  that  we  truly  share 
in  the  wrong-doing  of  the  one  whom  we 
condemn  and  injure,  when  by  another, 
a  more  sane,  a  more  thoughtful,  a  more 
kindly  and  common  -  sense  method,  we 
would  be  instrumental  in  bringing  about 
a  set  of  conditions  which,  instead  of  per- 
petuating the  man  as  a  criminal,  would 
make  him  an  honour  and  a  blessing  to  the 
community  in  which  he  lives. 

Likewise,  when  through  misfortune  or 
broken  health,  an  inability  to  find  work, 
and  many  times  in  a  starving  condition, 
a  man  or  a  woman  is  compelled  to  find 
entrance  to  the  workhouses  in  England, 
in  many  at  least  he  is  treated  more  as  a 
beast,  or  as  an  inanimate  object,  than  as 
a  human  being.  He  who  enters  these  must, 
as  a  rule,  leave  all  hopes  for  love  and  kindly 
and   sympathetic   treatment  behind.       And 


58     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

this,  indeed,  is  the  reason  why  so  many 
deUberately  take  their  own  Hves  rather  than 
enter  them.  And  yet  it  is  England  who 
prides  herself  upon  being  the  world's 
greatest  Empire — a  great  Christian  nation 
whose  mission  it  is,  even  with  shot  and 
shell  her  leaders  will  tell  you,  to  carry  the 
blessings  of  a  Christian  civilisation  to  the 
inferior  peoples  of  the  world. 

When  we  once  begin  to  understand  that 
ignorance  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  wrong- 
doing, of  all  sin  and  error  and  crime,  with 
their  attendant  sufferings  and  losses,  then 
we  shall  begin  to  realise  that  sympathy 
and  compassion — and,  consequently,  kindly 
treatment  —  instead  of  punishment  and 
revenge,  is  necessary  if  we  would  truly  aid 
one  who  has  stumbled.  The  systems  in 
vogue  to-day  will  make  and  will  perpetuate 
criminals ;  they  will  not  transform  a  wrong- 
doer into  a  strong,  sympathetic,  and  honest 
man  or  woman.  They  may  make  him  or 
her  a  greater  danger  to  society,  but  they 
will  never  make  him  or  her  an  aid  to  the 
community,  or  an  aid  in  bringing  about 
a  higher  state  of  Hfe  and  civilisation  in 
the  community,  as  practically  every  one  of 
such   can   be   made.     In   the   work  of  the 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE    59 

George  Junior  Republic,  in  New  York 
State,  we  have  an  evidence  of  what  can 
be  accomplished  when  work  is  begun  from 
the  right  side.  And  if  boys  can  be  reached 
so  effectively  by  these  methods,  certainly 
men  and  women  can  be  also. 

During  a  single  year  recently  a  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  cases  in  round  numbers 
were  committed  to  prison  in  England  and 
Wales.  Of  this  number  over  sixty-one 
thousand — considerably  more  than  a  third — 
were  committed  for  a  week  or  less.  Now, 
under  a  wise  and  more  enlightened  system 
of  penal  law,  most  of  these  cases  need  not, 
and  should  not,  have  come  to  prison  at 
all.  In  the  matter  of  imprisonment  it  is 
so  often  that  it  is  the  first  step,  the  first 
commitment,  which  counts  and  which  even- 
tually evolves  a  criminal  future.  Of  these 
sixty-one  thousand  cases  and  over,  a  very 
large  number  were  first  offenders,  and  many 
were  imprisoned  for  but  three  or  four  days. 
How  often  it  has  been  said  by  one  whose 
life  has  been  one  of  the  criminal  cast,  "  If 
I  hadn't  got  that  three  or  four  days  (or 
that  week)  when  a  boy,  how  different  my 
whole  life  would  have  been."  If,  therefore, 
we   would   prevent  having  a  criminal   class 


6o     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

we  must  do  everything  in  our  power  to 
prevent  unnecessary  additions  to  it,  and 
especially  should  we  refrain  from  actually 
driving  early  and  slight  offenders  into  its 
ranks. 

And  then  the  meaningless,  unnecessary, 
and  deplorable  degradations  that  so  often 
accompany  the  treatment  of  prisoners  are 
worthy  of  the  most  unreserved  condemna- 
tion. There  is  enough  degradation,  God 
knows,  accompanying  the  entrance  to  prison 
life  in  itself  without  any  studied  additions 
to  it.  When,  through  studied  efforts,  or 
the  blind  and  brainless  following  of  bad 
precedent  on  the  part  of  prison  officials, 
it  is  made  next  to  impossible  for  one  in 
prison  to  receive  frank  and  open-hearted 
kindness,  and  when  thereby  it  is  made 
impossible  for  him  spontaneously  to  give 
kindness,  then  no  more  successful  steps  in 
the  process  of  perpetuating  him  as  a 
criminal,  could  be  taken.  Instead  of  wise, 
Christ-like  steps  to  awaken,  to  feed,  and 
to  foster  this  greatest  of  heart  qualities, 
hand-in-hand  with  self-respect,  from  the 
very  first,  crushing  blows  are  given  for 
its  total  destruction.  Little  wonder  is  it, 
then,    that    so    often    the    offender    comes 


EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE     6i 

out  of  prison  with  that  deep  and  sullen 
hatred  of  all  established  order,  that  makes 
him  more  dangerous  to  himself  and  to 
society  at  large  than  ever  before. 

Any  system  of  penal  law  and  prison  discip- 
line'or  treatment  that  does  not  give  a  man 
or  a  woman  back  to  the  world  better  than 
when  he  or  she  entered  the  prison  gates,  is 
one  greatly  to  be  deplored.  Here  and  there, 
however,  there  are  brave  and  able  men  and 
women,  strong,  sweet,  and  with  great  love  in 
their  natures,  who  are  giving  themselves  to 
this  work,  and  who  are  quietly  and  gradually 
leading  us  into  a  better  day.  And  as  better 
social  and  more  equal  industrial  conditions 
for  the  great  mass  of  the  people  come  about, 
and  as  a  more  vital,  humane,  heart-training 
for  all  classes,  from  the  so-called  highest  to 
the  so-called  lowest,  takes  its  place  amongst 
us,  then  this  great  and  constant  problem 
will  be  already  to  a  great  extent  solved. 

We  need  more  sympathy  in  all  of  our 
relations  in  every-day  life,  individual  and 
national,  and  any  methods  of  punishment 
that  have  in  them  the  elements  of  resent- 
ment and  revenge,  in  distinction  from  being 
restraining,  educational,  and  uplifting  arc 
thoroughly  anti-Christian,  to  say  nothing  of 


62     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

their  being  unwise,  inexpedient,  and  expen- 
sive. Who  sliall  accuse  and  who  shall  con- 
demn? Certainly  nowise  man  or  woman; 
and  certainly  the  unfortunate  ones  among  us 
should  not  be  in  the  hands  of  those  who  are 
the  unwise.  The  time  was,  not  so  very  long 
ago,  when  the  insane  were  treated  much  as 
our  criminals  are  treated  to-day,  treated  as 
if  they  were  to  blame.  A  wiser  spirit,  how- 
ever, prevails  in  regard  to  this  unfortunate 
class  among  us,  and  insanity  is  now  looked 
upon  as  a  form  of  mental  disease,  not  as 
a  wilful  perversion  of  one's  natural  self. 

The  wiser  among  us,  who  have  given 
time  and  attention  to  the  study  of  the 
criminal  classes  and  the  best  methods  of 
aiding  them,  are  recognising  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  moral  disease,  just  as 
we  have  come  into  the  realisation  of  the 
fact  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  mental 
disease,  and  when  those  whom  we  call 
criminals  are  treated  in  accordance  with 
these  facts,  then  we  shall  begin  to  witness 
a  great  change  for  the  better  in  our  present 
methods. 

Sympathy  must  be  brought  about  so  far 
as  our  relations  with  one  another  and  so  far 
as  our  relations  with  the  animal  world  are 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     63 

concerned.  Every  living  creature  must  be 
looked  upon,  respected,  and  treated  as  a 
living  creature  and  not  as  a  mere  thing,  not 
as  something  that  is  merely  to  serve  our 
own  purposes,  with  no  right  of  any  claims 
upon  us  in  return. 

Do  you  know  the  story  of  "  The  Caged 
Thrush  "  ?     A  stanza  comes  to  my  mind  : 

"  Alas  for  the  bird  who  was  born  to  sing  ! 
They  have   made   him   a  cage  ;    they   have 

clipped  his  wing  ; 
They  have  shut  him  up  in  a  dingy  street, 
And  they  praise  his  singing  and  call  it  sweet ; 
But  his  heart  and  his  song  are  saddened  and 

filled 
With  the  woods  and  the  nest  he  never  will 

build, 
And  the  wild  young  dawn  coming  into  the 

tree, 
And  the  mate  that  never  his  mate  will  be  ; 
And  day  by  day,  when  his  notes  are  heard, 
They   freshen    the   street,  but — alas   for   the 

bird ! " 

The  Golden  Rule  must  be  applied  in  our 
relations  with  the  animal  world  just  as  it 
must  be  applied  in  our  relations  with  our 
fellow-men,  and  no  one  can  be  a  Christian 
man  or  woman,  or  even  truly  deserve  the 


64     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

name  of  man  or  woman,  until  this  finds  em- 
bodiment in  his  or  her  hfe.  Even  worms  are 
our  helpers,  and  it  would  be  absolutely  impos- 
sible, so  far  as  the  right  conditions  in  the 
ground  are  concerned,  to  get  along  without 
them.  We  are  their  debtors  to  a  vast  extent, 
and  were  it  not  for  the  birds,  practically 
all  vegetable  and  plant  life  would  in  time, 
as  we  have  found,  be  destroyed,  and  we 
would  be  helpless  even  so  far  as  our  very 
existence  is  concerned.  When  we  study  the 
habits  of  animals  in  a  truly  sympathetic 
way  and  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
them  and  with  the  work  that  each  one  is 
performing,  we  shall  see  that  each  one  has 
its  place  in  the  economy  of  God's  world,  that 
each  has  its  part  to  play,  and  that  even  so 
far  as  the  animal  world  is  concerned  we  are 
all  related  and  inter-related.  If  we  destroy 
or  permit  to  be  destroyed  that  marvellous 
balance  which  the  Divine  Power  has  insti- 
tuted in  the  Universe,  we  do  it  at  our  own 
peril.  Instead,  then,  of  being  the  enemies  of 
the  animal  world,  instead  of  being  its  perse- 
cutors and  its  destroyers,  we  should  be  its 
friends  and  helpers. 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     65 


Homes  for  Animals 

Much  among  us  is  done  for  man,  little 
as  yet  for  the  animal.  There  are  among  us 
almost  innumerable  hospitals  and  homes  for 
men  and  women,  but  there  is  very  little  of  this 
nature  as  yet  for  the  animals.  As  yet,  there 
is  a  Home  or  a  Rescue  League  for  animals 
only  here  and  there.  We  need  them  more 
abundantly.  We  need  Homes  and  Rescue 
Leagues  and  Clinics  and  Hospitals  for  them 
as  we  need  them  for  ourselves ;  and  where 
there  is  one  Animal  Home  to-day,  there  will 
be,  I  am  sure,  scores,  or  even  hundreds,  in 
time  to  come. 

In  far-off  Bombay  is  probably  the  largest 
and  most  elaborate  hospital  for  animals  in 
the  world.  It  has  both  its  in-patients  and 
its  out-patients,  and  it  ministers  to  animals 
of  all  kinds  as  carefully  as  human  beings 
are  administered  to  in  the  hospitals  of  the 
West.  Over  2000  animals  are  taken  into 
the  hospital  each  year,  and  well  on  to  1000 
are  treated  as  out-patients.  In  all  there  are 
some  forty  buildings,  large  and  small,  con- 
nected with  the  hospital,  and  the  architec- 
tural structure  and  the  appointments  of  some 
E 


66     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

of  them  are  indeed  superior  to  those  of  many 
of  our  regular  hospitals. 

This  splendid  hospital  for  animals  was 
founded  by  a  native  Indian,  a  Parsee  mer- 
chant, Sir  Dinshaw  Manockjee  Petit.  It  is 
called  Bai  Sakarbai  Dinshaw  Petit  Hospital 
for  Animals,  and  receives  its  support  from 
large  numbers  of  citizens  of  Bombay  who  are 
interested  in  its  beneficent  work. 

Not  only  domestic  animals  of  every  kind 
are  treated  and  cared  for  in  it,  but  the  ani- 
mals of  the  jungle  and  the  wild  birds  which 
are  found  wounded  or  suffering  from  any 
cause,  are  taken  to  it  and  nursed  back  to 
health  and  then  set  free  again. 

The  hospital  is  the  pride  of  Bombay,  and 
the  Hindus  are  very  liberal  in  their  con- 
tributions to  it.  When  endowing  the 
laboratory  Sir  Dinshaw  made  the  express 
stipulation  that  no  vivisection  should  be 
practised  in  it,  "  for  the  reason  that  the 
same  would  wound  the  feelings  of  Hindus, 
from  whom  material  support  is  obtained 
for  the  hospital,  and  if  they  come  to  know 
of  it  they  will  at  once  discontinue  their 
support,  and  the  hospital  will  thereby  suffer 
in  this  respect."  This  is  the  frank  and 
child-like  reason  given    by  Sir  Dinshaw  in 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATUKE     67 

one  of  the  sections  of  the  document  by 
which  he  created  tlie  trust  for  the  laboratory. 

In  addition  to  this  splendid  Hospital 
for  Animals,  there  is  in  Bombay  an  in- 
fluential Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals.  There  is  also  the 
Pinjrapole,  a  place  where  worn-out  or  dis- 
eased animals  are  sent  to  be  cared  for 
until  they  are  restored  to  health  or  until 
they  die.  Near  Calcutta  there  is  also  a 
similar  institution,  established  some  thirteen 
years  ago  by  a  society  of  influential  Hindus. 
It  is  near  the  Sodepur  Station,  some  ten 
miles  from  the  city,  and  is  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  manager  with  a  staff"  of  some 
eighty  helpers  and  experienced  veterinary 
surgeons. 

In  many  cities  in  India  institutions  similar 
to  those  above  described  are  to  be  found. 
Says  a  writer  in  the  London  Telegraph  in 
describing  this  home  for  animals  in  Cal- 
cutta : 

"  It  is  true  that  the  mysterious  lower  world 
of  animal  life  is  regarded  in  India  with  more 
reverence  and  kindliness  than  among  Christian 
peoples.  The  one  great  fact  of  abstinence 
from  flesh  food  produces  an  extraordinary  effect 
among  Hindoo  communities.     A  newly-arrived 


68     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

European  walking  in  Baroda,  or  Nassick,  or 
any  such  Brahmanic  capital,  would  mark  with 
wonder  how  the  lower  creatures  have  under- 
stood and  acted  upon  this  tacit  compact  of 
peace.  In  the  densest  portions  of  the  towns 
the  monkeys  sit  and  chatter  on  the  roof  ridges, 
the  striped  squirrels  race  up  and  down  the 
shop  poles,  the  green  parrots  fly  screaming 
about  the  streets,  the  doves  perch  and  coo  and 
nest  everywhere,  the  flying  foxes  hang  over  the 
most  frequented  wells  and  tanks,  the  mon- 
goose scurries  in  and  out  of  the  garden  gates, 
the  kites  and  crows  frequent  the  market-places, 
jungle  doves  and  birds  of  all  sorts  forage  boldly 
for  food,  and  at  night  even  the  jackals  steal 
impudently  down  into  the  suburbs.  There  is 
a  great  fixed  peace  between  man  and  his  in- 
feriors in  the  scale  of  creation,  and  the  effect 
of  this,  to  any  lover  of  nature,  is  certainly 
charming." 

Here  let  me  quote  a  few  sentences  from 
a  Hindu  writer  and  teacher,  personally 
known  to  and  honoured  by  many  in  America 
and  in  England : 

"When  Hindu  boys  and  girls  go  to  school 
and  read  their  first  lessons,  they  learn  the 
highest  humanitarian  principles,  and  as  they 
grow  older  they  are  kind  toward  all  living 
creatures.  They  are  taught :  '  Be  kind  to 
lower  animals.     Do  not  kill  them  for  your  food, 


EVERY  LIVING   CREATURE     69 

because  the  natural  food  of  man  is  not  an 
animal.'  I  learned  in  the  first  book  of  Sanskrit : 
'When  enough  of  nourishment  can  easily  be 
obtained  from  that  which  grows  spontaneously 
on  the  earth,  who  will  commit  such  a  great 
sin  as  to  kill  animals  for  filling  his  stomach 
and  deriving  a  little  pleasure  of  taste?' 

"  Each  one  of  these  animals  possesses  a  soul, 
has  individuality  and  the  sense  of  '  I,'  can 
feel  pleasure  and  pain,  has  fear  of  death  and 
struggles  to  live.  The  germ  of  life  in  each 
one  of  these  will  gradually  pass  through  the 
various  stages  of  evolution,  and  ultimately 
appear  in  a  human  form.  Therefore,  the 
religion,  philosophy,  and  Scriptures  of  the 
Hindus  teach  that  as  life  is  dear  to  us,  so  is 
it  dear  to  the  lower  animals  ;  as  we  do  not 
wish  to  be  killed,  so  they  too  shrink  from 
death.  '  Do  not  kill  any  animal  for  pleasure, 
see  harmony  in  nature,  and  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  all  living  creatures,'  say  the  Hindu 
Scriptures. 

"  Whenever  we  kill  any  animal  for  our  food 
or  pleasure  we  are  selfish.  It  is  on  account 
of  extreme  selfishness  that  we  do  not  recognise 
the  rights  of  other  animals,  and  that  we  try 
to  nourish,  nay,  even  to  amuse  ourselves,  by 
killing  innocent  creatures  or  by  injuring  them, 
or  by  depriving  them  of  their  rights.  This 
kind  of  selfishness  is  the  mother  of  all  evil 
thoughts  and  wicked  deeds.     That  which  makes 


70    EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

us  selfish  and  helps  us  to  cling  to  our  lower 
self  is  degrading  and  wicked  ;  that  which  leads 
us  towards  unselfishness  is  elevating  and  virtu- 
ous. That  which  prevents  us  from  realising 
the  oneness  of  Spirit  is  wrong ;  that  which 
opens  our  spiritual  eyes  and  helps  us  to  see 
that  Divinity  is  expressing  itself  through  the 
forms  of  lower  animals,  and  makes  us  love 
them  as  we  love  our  own  Self,  is  godly  and 
divine." 

In  the  light  of  all  the  foregoing  facts  we 
can  see  that  we  have  much  to  learn  in  our 
relations  with  the  animal  world  from  the 
Hindu  people.  They  have  grasped  far  more 
fully  than  we  the  great  fact  of  the  universe — 
namely,  the  essential  unity,  the  essential  one- 
ness of  Life.  When  we  have  fully  grasped 
this  great  fact,  and  when  we  live  fully  in 
accordance  with  it,  then  our  civilisation  will 
become  a  symmetrical  civilisation,  it  will 
become  all-round  and  complete,  and  not 
the  one-sided  and  at  times  questionable 
civilisation  it  is  at  present.  It  will  then 
be  a  blessing  to  all  nations,  to  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth,  and  not  as  it  is 
so  often  to  day  in  some  respects,  a  verit- 
able curse  and  cause  of  degradation  to 
them,    for    it    will    revolutionise    in    many 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     71 

respects  our  relations  and  our  dealings 
with  them.  It  will  also  serve  to  make 
perpetual  that  whicj?,  if  we  are  not  care- 
ful, may  be  merely  transitory,  just  as  it 
has  proved  in  the  cases  of  many  appar- 
ently strong  and  powerful  nations  before 
us.  Let  us  follow  the  injunction  of  one 
of  the  speakers  at  a  meeting  of  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals 
in  a  city  of  what  some  term  a  heathen 
country,  when,  in  urging  an  increase  of 
the  Society's  membership  to  at  least  50,000, 
he  called  upon  the  people  to  "  write  mercy 
in  the  woods  where  the  wild  deer  runs, 
and  in  the  air  where  our  birds  fly,  and 
all  along  the  paths  where  our  children  and 
our  youths  pass  to  and  fro." 

Our  Humane  Education  Societies,  our 
societies  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals,  as  well  as  our  few  clinics  and 
hospitals  and  homes  for  animals,  are  re- 
ceiving support  from  the  best  types  of  men 
and  women,  but  they  need  a  still  greater 
and  a  far  more  universal  support  than 
they  are  at  present  receiving.  Interest 
along  this  line  is  growing,  however,  and  I 
think  the  time  is  rapidly  coming  when 
men  and  women  of  means,  in  making  be- 


72     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

quests  for  the  founding  or  the  maintaining 
of  institutions,  will  think  of  making  them 
for  the  animal  world  as  readily  as  they 
now  think  of  making  them  for  the  human 
world.  And  still  more,  the  wiser,  the 
kindlier,  and  the  more  far-seeing  among 
us,  will  give  liberally  to  the  support  of 
every  institu'ion,  every  movement  that  has 
for  its  work  humane,  heart  -  training,  so 
that  there  will  be  less  need  for  last  resorts, 
so  that  in  coming  time  prevention  will 
take  the  place  of  distress  and  suffering. 
It  is  simply  a  stirring  of  thought  that  is 
needed.  Practically  all  cases  of  cruelty 
and  ill-usage,  and  all  careless  treatment, 
arise  through  thoughtlessness,  or  have  at 
least  their  beginnings  in  thoughtlessness. 

We  must  learn  to  sympathise  with  the 
animals  about  us.  We  must  realise  that 
they  love  life  just  as  we  love  it,  that 
they  suffer  just  as  we  suffer,  that  they 
are  hurt  by  harshness  and  threats  as  we 
are  hurt  by  them,  that  they  are  influenced 
by  our  thoughts  as  we  are  influenced  by 
the  thoughts  of  one  another,  that  they  love 
kindly  treatment  and  that  they  appreciate  it 
as  we  do  ourselves,  that  they  love  and  form 
attachments  just  as  we  do. 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     73 

The  Enduring  Soul 

It  would  be  exceedingly  interesting  and 
valuable  were  there  place  in  a  little  volume 
of  this  nature  to  relate  numbers  of  incidents 
and  stories  in  connection  with  the  lives  of 
various  animals — incidents  and  stories  show- 
ing their  devotion  to  those  to  whom  they  have 
become  attached  and  whom  they  love,  their 
intelligence,  their  powers  of  memory,  their 
discernment  and  reason.^'  Many  is  the  time 
that  an  animal,  perhaps  the  dog  especially, 
has  thrown  itself  into  danger  to  warn  from 
danger  or  to  save  the  life  of  a  human 
being,  owner,  friend,  or  stranger,  without 
any  apparent  thought  of  its  own  safety  or 
life.  It  was  but  a  few  weeks  ago  that  I 
noticed  among  the  news  items  on  the 
editorial  page  ot  my  daily  paper,  that  on 
a  Swiss  eminence  a  monument  is  to  be 
erected  to  Bary,  that  splendid  St  Bernard 
dog  who  during  his  life  saved  the  lives  of 
some  forty  persons. 

And  there  are  other  monuments  that  I 
know  of,  erected  to  commemorate  the 
fidelity  or  the  sacrificial  service  of  animals. 
But  how  many  thousands  of  monuments, 
bathed    at    times   with   grateful    tears    and 


74     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

hallowed  by  loving  memories,  have  taken 
form  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those  into 
whose  lives  various  animals  have  come. 
And  when  we  look  into  its  eyes  and  see 
the  soul  of  the  animal  look  out  upon  us, 
with  all  its  love  and  its  fear,  its  warmth  of 
feehng,  its  confidence,  wherever  possible, 
as  well  as  its  strange  questionings,  is  it 
possible  for  us  longer  to  remain  among  that 
company  who  feel  that  there  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed,  eternally  fixed,  between  man  and  the 
animal,  many  of  whom  live  far  more  con- 
sistent and  honest  lives  than  we  at  times 
live  ourselves.  Personally  I  believe  that 
their  endeavour  to  live  true  to  their  various 
natures  and  to  their  highest,  even  if  at 
times  they  fall  short  of  it  as  we  do,  is 
something  that  will  be  just  as  enduring 
in  their  lives  as  in  ours,  and  that  they  are 
destined  to  a  continually  higher  life,  the 
same  as  each  and  every  one  of  us.  The 
common  Father  of  us  all,  of  the  animal 
as  of  ourselves,  caused  no  one  of  His 
creatures  to  be  brought  into  existence 
in  vain,  or  for  a  mere  temporary  time. 
Where  there  is  a  soul,  be  it  in  animal  or 
in  human  form,  it  is  destined  to  endure  as 
such,  even  though  the  form,  the  body  with 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     75 

which  it  is  clothed  upon,  and  through  which 
it  manifests  on  any  particular  plane  of  exist- 
ence, changes,  and  in  time  falls  away,  to 
give  place  to  a  new  type  of  body  better 
adapted  to  the  environment  into  which  it 
goes. 

In  order  to  be  as  concrete  as  possible, 
we  have  been  considering  concrete  cases 
of  carelessness  and  abuse  and  torture  to 
the  animal  world  from  our  hands.  But  I 
think  we  have  seen  sufficiently  clearly 
already  that  whenever  and  every  time  we 
sin  against  or  do  violence  to  these,  our 
fellow-creatures,  we  ourselves,  in  some  form 
or  another,  reap  of  the  kind  that  we  sow. 
This  is  inevitably  and  invariably  true,  and 
there  is  no  escape  from  it.  And  so,  instead 
of  being  their  arch-enemy,  let  the  children, 
above  all,  be  taught  to  become  friends  to, 
and  to  care  for  and  protect,  these,  their 
fellow-creatures. 

Let  them  be  taught  to  give  them  always 
kind  words,  and  kind  thoughts  as  well. 
Some  animals  are  most  sensitively  organised. 
They  feel  and  are  influenced  by  our 
thoughts  and  our  emotions  far  more  gener- 
ally than  we  realise,  and  in  some  cases  even 


76     EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE 

more  than  many  people  are.  And  why 
should  we  not  recognise  and  speak  to  the 
horse  as  we  pass  him  in  the  same  way  as 
we  do  to  a  fellow  human  being?  While 
he  may  not  get  our  exact  words,  he  never- 
theless gets  and  is  influenced  by  the  nature 
of  the  thought  that  is  behind,  and  that  is  the 
spirit  of  the  words.  Let  them  be  taught  to 
become  friends  in  this  way.  Let  them  be 
taught,  even  though  young,  to  raise  the 
hand  against  all  misuse,  abuse,  and  cruelty. 
Let  them  be  taught  that  the  horse,  for 
example,  when  tired,  or  when  its  load  is 
heavy,  needs  encouragement  just  as  a 
man  or  a  woman  needs  it,  and  that  the 
whip  is  not  necessary,  except,  indeed,  in 
cases  where  he  has  not  been  taught  to 
respond  to  words,  but  only  to  the  whip. 
The  whip  is  now  used  ninety-nine  cases 
out  of  a  hundred  where  it  is  not  only 
unnecessary,  but  entirely  uncalled  for. 

An  American  traveller,  when  riding  one 
day  with  Tolstoi,  noticed  that  he  never 
made  use  of  a  whip  when  driving,  and 
remarked  to  him  to  that  effect.  "  No," 
he  replied,  with  a  slight  spirit  of  disdain, 
"  I  talk  to  my  horses.  I  do  not  beat  them." 
Let  us   be   taught   by  and  let  us  carry  to 


EVERY    LIVING   CREATURE     77 

the   children    the   example   of    this    Christ- 
like  man. 


Heart-Training 

Were  I  an  educator,  I  would  endea- 
vour to  make  my  influence  along  the 
lines  of  humane,  heart-training  my  chief 
service  to  my  pupils.  The  rules  and 
principles  and  even  facts  that  are  taught 
them  will,  nine-tenths  of  them  at  least, 
by-and-by  be  forgotten,  but  by  bringing 
into  their  lives  this  higher  influence,  at 
once  the  root  and  the  flower  of  all  that 
is  worthy  of  the  name  "  education,"  I  would 
give  them  something  that  would  place  them 
at  once  in  the  ranks  of  the  noblest  of  the 
race.  I  would  give  not  only  special  atten- 
tion and  time  to  this  humane  education, 
but  I  would  introduce  it  into  and  cause  it 
to  permeate  all  of  my  work.  A  teacher 
with  a  little  insight  will  be  able  to  find 
opportunities  on  every  hand. 

M.  de  Sailly,  an  eminent  French  teacher, 
who  for  a  number  of  years  has  been  giving 
systematic  humane  instruction  in  his  school, 
says  : 

"I  have  long  been  convinced  that  kind- 


78     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

ness  to  animals  produces  great  results,  and 
that  it  is  not  only  a  powerful  cause  of  material 
prosperity,  but  also  the  beginning  of  moral 
prosperity.  My  manner  of  teaching  it  does 
not  disturb  the  routine  of  the  school.  Two 
days  in  the  week  all  our  lessons  are  conducted 
with  reference  to  this  subject.  In  the  read- 
ing class  I  choose  a  book  upon  animals,  and 
always  give  useful  instruction  and  advice. 
My  copies  for  writing  are  facts  in  natural 
history,  and  ideas  of  justice  and  kindness  to 
animals.  I  prove  that  by  not  overworking 
them,  and  by  keeping  them  in  clean  and 
roomy  stables,  feeding  them  well,  and  treat- 
ing them  kindly  and  gently,  a  greater  profit 
and  larger  crops  may  be  obtained.  I  also 
speak  of  birds  and  certain  small  animals 
which  are  very  useful  to  farmers. 

"  The  results  are  exceedingly  satisfac- 
tory. The  children  are  less  disorderly,  and 
more  gentle  and  affectionate  to  each  other. 
They  feel  more  and  more  kindly  to  the 
animals  and  have  ceased  to  rob  nests  and  kill 
birds.  They  are  touched  by  the  suffering  of 
animals,  and  the  pain  they  feel  when  they  see 
them  cruelly  used  moves  others  to  pity  and 
compassion." 

Mr  George   T.   Angell,   President  of  the 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     79 

American  Humane  Education  Society,  has 
said  : 

"Standing  before  you  as  the  advocate  of 
the  lower  races,  I  declare  what  I  believe 
cannot  be  gainsaid, — that  just  so  soon  and 
so  far  as  we  pour  into  all  our  schools  the 
songs,  the  poems,  and  literature  of  mercy 
towards  these  lower  creatures,  just  so  soon 
and  so  far  shall  we  reach  the  roots,  not  only 
of  cruelty,  but  of  crime.  .  .  . 

"  A  thousand  cases  of  cruelty  can  be  pre- 
vented by  kind  words  and  humane  education 
for  every  one  that  can  be  prevented  by 
prosecution." 

And  let  us  hear  another  sentence  or  two 
from  another  educator,  a  superintendent  of 
schools  in  one  of  our  New  England  States, 
— a  sentence  or  two  from  an  appeal  to  his 
fellows  in  connection  with  humane  educa- 
tion : 

"  Fellow-teachers,  let  us  make  our  teaching 
stronger  and  richer.  Let  us  give  our  pupils 
something  varied  and  inviting.  Let  us 
reach  out  more.  Let  us  reach  out  for  and 
take  in  humane  education.  Too  much  so- 
called  teaching  is  unskilled  labour.  Too 
many  of  us  are  buried  in  our  text-books — 
are     mechanical     hearers     of    lessons,    are 


8o     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

mere  word-jugglers,  fact-pedlers,  and  mind- 
stuffers.  Let  us  put  away  all  these  things 
and  teach.  Let  us  put  brains  and  heart 
into  our  work.  Let  us  become  character- 
builders.  Such  work  will  compel  people  to 
realise  the  grandly  important  truth  that 
teaching  is  the  profoundest  science,  the 
highest  art,  the  noblest  profession." 

Then,  were  I  a  mother,  I  would  infuse  this 
same  humane  influence  into  all  phases  of  the 
child's  life  and  growth.  Quietly  and  indirectly 
I  would  make  all  things  speak  to  him  in  this 
language.  I  would  put  into  his  hands  books 
such  as  "Black  Beauty,"  "Beautiful  Joe," 
and  others  of  a  kindred  nature.  I  would 
form  in  my  own  village  or  part  of  the 
city,  were  there  not  one  there  already,  a 
Band  of  Mercy,  into  which  my  own  and 
neighbours'  children  would  be  called ;  and 
thus  I  would  open  up  another  little  fountain 
of  humanity  for  the  healing  of  our  troubled 
times. 

We  have  recently  been  at  war  with  another 
nation.  There  is  to-day  much  unrest  and 
uncertainty  in  connection  with  our  foreign 
relations  and  policies.  These  matters,  vital 
as  they  are,  are  of  but  small  import  compared 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE     8i 

with  the  questions  and  the  conflict  in  con- 
nection with  the  social  situation  within  our 
own  borders  that  we  shall  be  compelled 
squarely  to  face  within  the  coming  few  years ; 
the  beginning  of  this  time  is  indeed  already 
at  our  very  doors.  The  state  of  affairs  re- 
ferred to,  as  also  its  rapidly  increasing  pro- 
portions, is  sufficiently  well-known  to  all  to 
make  it  unnecessary  for  more  to  be  said  in 
regard  to  it.  Many  who  will  have  a  hand  in 
the  solution  and  adjustment  of  these  matters 
are  now  in  our  schools  and  on  our  streets, 
and  we  are  educating  them.  We  can  educate 
them  to  patience,  kindness,  equity,  and 
reason,  or  to  hot  -  headedness,  rashness, 
cruelty,  and  anarchy.  And  if  these  ques. 
tions  are  not  adjusted  peaceably  and  through 
Jthe  influence  of  the  former  qualities,  then 
they  will  be  precipitated,  through  conflict 
and  a  terrific  destruction  of  life  and  property, 
at  the  hands  of  those  of  the  latter  qualities. 
We  have  now  such  agencies  as  will,  in  the 
hands  of  a  small  body  of  hot-headed,  heartless 
men,  burn  half  a  city  in  a  single  night. 
Though  one  is  a  wealthy  parent,  his  son  may 
be  the  poor  man  and  the  anarchist.  Though 
another  parent  is  poor,  his  son  may  be  the 
millionaire,  and  one  of  such  a  type  as  to  be 

F 


82     EVERY   LIVING  CREATURE 

hated  by  the  great  toiling  classes.  Time  has 
a  strange  method  of  changing  conditions. 
Both  need  to  be  humanely  educated,  the  one 
equally  with  the  other ;  and  upon  how  thor- 
oughly they  are  so  educated  will  depend  the 
orderly  adjustment  and  peaceable  solution  of 
this  rapidly  coming  time. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  valuable 
features  of  the  kindergarten  education, 
which  comes  nearer  the  true  education 
than  any  we  have  yet  seen,  is  the  constantly 
recurring  lesson  of  love,  sympathy,  kindness, 
and  care  for  the  animal  world.  All  fellow- 
ships thus  fostered,  and  the  humane  senti' 
ments  thus  inculcated,  will  return  to  soften 
and  enrich  the  child's,  and  later  the  man's 
or  the  woman's  life,  a  thousand  or  a  million 
fold ;  for  we  must  always  bear  in  mind 
that  every  kindness  shown,  every  service 
done,  to  either  a  fellow  human  being  or  a 
so-called  dumb  fellow-creature,  does  us  more 
good  than  the  one  for  whom  or  that  for 
which  we  do  it.  The  joy  that  comes  from 
this  open-hearted  fellowship  with  all  living 
creatures  is  something  too  precious  and 
valuable  to  be  given  up  when  once  experi- 
enced. To  feel  and  to  realise  the  essential 
oneness   of   all   life   is    a  steep,  up  which 


EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE    83 

the  world  is  now  rapidly  coming.  Through 
it  ethics  is  being  broadened  and  deepened, 
and  even  reHgion  is  being  enriched  and 
vitalised.  Many,  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
whose  thoughts  and  sympathies  have  reached 
this  higher  plane,  are  giving  abundantly  of 
their  time  to  push  forward  this  much-belated 
humane  element  in  human  life.  Others  are 
giving  abundantly  of  their  treasure,  through 
which  many  thousands  of  humane  publica- 
tions are  being  circulated,  homes  for  animals 
are  being  established,  humane  education  is 
being  fostered,  and  the  work  of  the  various 
humane  organisations  is  being  enlarged  in 
its  scope  and  possibilities. 

The  strongest  and  noblest  types  of  men 
^  and  women  are  never  devoid  of  this  tender, 
humane  sympathy,  which  is  ever  quick  to 
manifest  itself  in  kindness  and  care  for  every 
living  creature.  There  is  a  little  incident 
in  the  life  of  Lincoln  which  I  found  a  few 
days  ago  in  a  most  valuable  little  book 
recently  published,  entitled  "Songs  of 
Happy  Life  "  : 

"  In  the  early  pioneer  days,  when  he 
was  a  practising  attorney  and  'rode  the 
circuit,'  as  was  the  custom  at  that  time, 
he  made  one  of  a  party  of  horsemen,  lawyers 


84     EVERY   LIVING   CREATURE 

like  himself,  who  were  on  their  way  one 
spring  morning  from  one  court  town  to 
another.  Their  course  lay  across  the 
prairies  and  through  the  timber;  and  as 
they  passed  by  a  little  grove  where  the 
birds  were  singing  merrily,  they  noticed  a 
little  fledgling  which  had  fallen  from  the 
nest  and  was  fluttering  by  the  roadside. 
After  they  had  ridden  a  short  distance, 
Mr  Lincoln  stopped  and,  wheeling  his 
horse,  said,  'Wait  for  me  a  moment.  I 
will  soon  rejoin  you ' ;  and  as  the  party 
halted  and  watched  him  they  saw  Mr 
Lincoln  return  to  the  place  where  the  little 
bird  lay  helpless  on  the  ground,  saw  him 
tenderly  take  it  up  and  set  it  carefully  on 
a  limb  near  the  nest.  When  he  joined  his 
companions  one  of  them  laughingly  said, 
'  Why,  Lincoln,  what  did  you  bother  your- 
self and  delay  us  for,  with  such  a  trifle 
as  that  ? '  The  reply  deserves  to  be  re- 
membered, and  it  is  for  this  that  I  have 
told  the  story.  '  My  friend,'  said  Mr 
Lincoln,  *!  can  only  say  this,  that  I  feel 
better  for  it.'"  .- 

Let  us  go  from  this  to  one  other  incident 
in  his  life.  During  that  famous  series  of 
public  debates  in  Illinois  with  Stephen  A, 


EVERY  LIVING  CREATURE     85 

Douglas  in  1858,  Mr  Douglas  at  one  place 
said,  "  I  care  not  whether  slavery  in  the 
Territories  be  voted  up  or  whether  it  be 
voted  down,  it  makes  not  a  particle  of  differ- 
ence with  me."  Mr  Lincoln,  speaking  from 
the  fulness  of  his  great  sympathetic  heart, 
replied  with  emotion :  "  I  am  sorry  to  per- 
ceive that  my  friend  Judge  Douglas  is  so 
constituted  that  he  does  not  feel  the  lash 
the  least  bit  when  it  is  laid  upon  another 
man's  back." 

Such  are  the  strong,  the  valiant,  the  royal 
men  and  women,  those  with  this  tender 
soul-pathos,  loving,  caring,  feeling  for, 
sympathising  with,  both  their  fellow  human 
beings  and  their  so-called  dumb  fellow- 
creatures;  recognising  that  we  are  all  parts 
of  the  one  great  whole,  all  different  forms 
of  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  of  Infinite 
Life,  Love,  and  Power  that  is  back  of  all, 
working  in  and  through  all, — the  life  of  all 


By    RALPH    WALDO    TRINE. 

"  The  Life  Books." 

What  All  The  World's  A-Seeking. 

Its  purpose  is  dtstt7ictly practical.  It  is  most  fas- 
cinatingly written,  and  deserves  the  remarkable  suc- 
cess It  has  achieved.  —  The  Review  of  Reviews. 

The  volume  abounds  in  passages  of  great  beauty 
and  strength ;  but  the  striking  feature  of  the  book- 
is,  after  all,  the  solid,  sensible,  healthy  exposition  of 
the  one  theme  it  is  written  to  enforce. — New  York 
Independent. 

This  is  a  book  among  a  thousand  for  its  inspiring 
message,  and  is  eminently  worthy  of  a  vast  audience. 
You  will  miss  much  if  you  miss  reading  its  truth- 
laden  pages.  —  Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

In  Tune  With   the  Infinite 

It  is  one  of  the  simplest,  clearest  works  ever  writ- 
ten, dealing  with  the  power  of  the  interior  forces  in 
moulding  the  every-day  conditions  of  life. —  San 
Francisco  Bttlletin. 

...  It  immediately  suggests  the  works  of  Drum- 
mond,  but  shows  a  decided  advance  upon  the  ground 
which  he  made  familiar  to  mankind;  it  not  only  re- 
veals the  author's  recognition  of  spiritual  law,  but  in 
certain  instances  shows  his  rare  and  remarkable  un- 
derstanding of  the  nature  and  action  of  such  law; 
the  preface  alone  shows  his  high  intuition,  and  the 
book  prsves  his  ability  to  achieve  his  purpose  in  a 
marvellous  degree. — Boston  Daily  Evening  Tran- 
script. 

Mr.  Trine  can  write  well  upon  such  topics  as  this. 
He  is  alive,  vigorous,  cheery,  confident.  The  work 
has  distinctiveness  in  its  style  and  method. —  The 
Literary  World.,  London. 


The  above  books  are  beautifully  and  durably  bound 

in  gray-green  raised  cloth,  stamped  i?i  deep 

old-green  and  gold,  with  gilt  top. 

Price,  $1.2 J  per  volume. 

THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL    &.   CO., 

NEW    YORK. 


By    RALPH    WALDO    TRINE. 


The  "  Life  "   Booklets. 

The  Greatest  Thing  Ever  Known. 

The  moment  we  fully  and  vitally  realize  who  and 
what  2fe  are  we  then  begm  to  build  our  own  world 
even  as  God  builds  His. — From  Title-page. 

.  .  .  It  unfolds  the  secret  of  our  underlying 
strength,  and  shows  what  it  is  that  gives  us  power 
to  fulfil  the  real  and  livmg  purposes  of  our  being. 
—  The  New  Christtanity. 

Every  Living  Creature. 

The  tender  and  humane  passion  in  the  human 
heart  is  too  precious  a  quality  to  allow  it  to  be 
hardened  or  effaced  by  practices  such  as  we  so  often 
indulgein.  —  From  Title-p age . 

An  eloquent  appeal  and  an  abL'  argument  for 
justice  and  mercy  to  our  dumb  fellow-creatures.  A 
good  book  for  those  whose  characters  are  being 
formed,  and  for  all  who  love  justice  and  right. — 
Religio-Philoiophical  Journal. 

Character-Building  Thought  Pov/er. 

A  thought,  good  or  evil,  an  act,  in  time  a  habit, 
so  runs  life's  law;  what  you  live  in  your  thought- 
world,  that,  sooner  or  later,  you  will  find  objectified 
in  your  life.  —  From  Title-page. 

In  "Character-Building  Thought  Power"  Mr. 
Trine  demonstrates  the  power  of  mental  habits, 
and  shows  how  by  daily  effort  we  may  train  our- 
selves into  right  ways  of  thinking  and  acting.  His 
teachings  arc  sound,  practical,  and  of  priceless 
worth.  —  Albany  Press. 


Bound  in  an  exceedingly  attractive  and  handy 
form,.     Price,  S3  cents  per  volume. 


THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL    &    CO., 

NEV\^    YORK 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


aCO  LD-UItt 


Jul  3 11976 


Form  L9-Serie8  444 


UCLA  Young  Research   Library 

HV4711    .T73 
y 

llllllllllll  III  |l||l  II    N    l|N  I  I  illll    III  II  III 


L  009  609  577  3 


